The Phoenix Mercury had an eventful WNBA offseason. Ten players started at least one game for the team in 2024, but of those, only Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack are on the 2025 roster. It was a complete overhaul for the Mercury.
This new-look team has some really good pieces on it now, but it also feels almost like a team that was constructed at random. The high-end talent should get the team into the playoffs, but there's a reason ESPN gives the team essentially a 50-50 shot at making the postseason, putting the team's chances at 49.8 percent.
Here are three pressing questions for the Phoenix Mercury in 2025.
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How does the team replace Brittney Griner?
I'm a huge Natasha Mack fan and have been since her Oklahoma State days, but I'm not sure she can be the starting center on a title contender.
Brittney Griner's exit puts the Mercury in a weird spot. Griner has played both the four and five for the team at various points, but last season saw her pretty exclusively at center, with the team going small with Sophie Cunningham and Rebecca Allen at the four.
Mack's an excellent rebounder, but she won't give Phoenix a ton offensively at the five. That might be okay, considering the scoring talent of the team's Big Three, but it's also fairly risky.
Kalani Brown will get run at center as well. Her scoring upside is higher than Mack's, but her defensive upside is lower. It's definitely an imperfect situation, one that could haunt the team's chances of contending this season.
How does the team replace Diana Taurasi?
Luckily for the Mercury, this will be much easier than replacing Griner. That's not meant as a knock on Diana Taurasi, but with Alyssa Thomas as the primary ball-handler and Sami Whitcomb ready to take a ton of open 3-pointers, the Mercury aren't in quite as much of a pickle as they are up front. Thomas, especially, gives the team such an advantage, because having your power forward serve as the primary initiator allows them to play a shooter like Whitcomb at the one without needing to worry too much about her deficiencies as a ball-handler.
Part of that is the team was already transitioning away from Taurasi as the lead scorer. Kahleah Copper has stepped into that role well and should continue to be a huge part of the Mercury offense. The addition of Thomas and Sabally shifts that a little bit, with the scoring upside of those three making it relatively easy to forget about Taurasi on the court.
(Of course, there's no forgetting Taurasi off the court. She's a legend of the game and while she may have hung on a bit too long in terms of her on-court contributions, a WNBA world without her is going to feel so weird and empty.)
Is this the big breakout year for Satou Sabally?
If she stays healthy, probably!
After five seasons in Dallas, Satou Sabally demanded a trade this offseason and landed in Phoenix. She played just 15 games in 2024, but was on fire, averaging 17.9 points and shooting 45.2 percent from 3-point range. Sabally also added 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game. She was doing everything she could for Dallas after the Olympic break.
The concern, though, is that Sabally has played only one full season in the WNBA. That was 2023, her best year so far, as she averaged career highs in points and rebounds.
We're seeing the best version of Sabally at this point, a player who when healthy is a top 10 WNBA player. We just have no idea if she can stay healthy. History suggests she can't, but you never really know, right? Phoenix took a pretty big risk in acquiring Sabally based on her injury history, but it's a risk that could pay dividends. With Copper and Thomas around her, Sabally should have less pressure than ever before. She's just got to stay on the court.