Hello, hoopheads! We’re just 15 days from the start of the 2026 WNBA season as The Post Presence rolls on with a look at the Phoenix Mercury. You can head here to check out yesterday’s installment on the Las Vegas Aces, but as a reminder, each team’s preview looks to answer four questions: what happened last year, what’s the roster going to look like, what Marvel Snap deck does the team remind me of, and what am I expecting from them in 2026. Please feel free to drop any questions or comments of your own below, and please consider liking, subscribing, reposting, sharing with a friend via messenger pigeon or anything else you can do to spread the good word of The Post Presence. This is step two of a long journey and every bit of exposure helps!
What happened last season?
Phoenix made perhaps the biggest splash in the 2025 offseason, bringing in Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally to join Kahleah Copper. The Mercury also bid farewell to Brittney Griner, formally turning the page on the era of Mercury basketball defined by BG and former teammate Diana Taurasi. My suspicion that those superstar acquisitions turned Phoenix back into a title contender in an instant was eventually confirmed by the Mercury’s sixth appearance in the WNBA Finals (tied for the second-most in league history), but I’ll concede that was something of a surprise after they finished tied for fourth in the standings. The Mercury dispatched the spiraling New York Liberty in the first round of the playoffs — surprising no one less than this Liberty season-ticket holder — before stunning the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the semifinals, but were swept by the Aces in the Finals.
What’s the roster going to look like?
I said yesterday that the Aces roster projection would be my easiest of the 15 teams, in part due to the relative lack of bodies in training camp (13 for 12 roster spots). To that end, the Mercury’s roster is probably the hardest to predict across the WNBA, because there sure are a lot of players vying to make the cut. The 2025 Mercury also memorably featured several “rookies” with extensive professional experience overseas, leaving little doubt that coach Nate Tibbetts will give everyone in camp a proper look. I don’t think it’s necessary to nail down the entire roster to have a pretty good idea of what the Mercury rotation will look like, however, and the most notable change from 2025 is that it won’t include Sabally after she signed with the (hopefully no longer hapless) Liberty as a free agent.
Headlining the returning players, Thomas signed a three-year contract after recording a WNBA-record 10 triple-doubles last season. That pushed her playoff-inclusive career-record total to 25, more than six times as many as the next player on the list. My favorite hooper, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu — who I’ll remind you is the college triple-double queen — is second on the pro list with four in her WNBA career. AT has had 18 triple-doubles since Sab’s fourth, but I digress. Copper, a former WNBA Finals MVP, is also back for a third season alongside center Natasha Mack, while Sami Whitcomb returns for a second season of prolific (if streaky) 3-point shooting in the desert. Thirty-eight-year old six-time former All-Star DeWanna Bonner also returns after joining the Mercury last summer following an ill-fated stint in Indiana, herself a prolific 3-point shooter and the owner of a pair of legs that seem to defy the laws of physics in keeping her upright. The highest-profile free agent signing is 32-year old French forward and two-time Olympian Valeriane Ayayi, whose only previous WNBA experience came with the 2015 San Antonio Stars (now the Aces) at the age of 21. She certainly fits the Mercury’s preferred archetype and her $500,000 salary says she’s making the team.
Cameroonian point guard Monique Akoa Makani, 25, who made her WNBA debut with the 2025 Mercury, is the only other returning player set to make more than a minimum salary, which seems like a decent indication she’s a part of Phoenix’s plans. More importantly, she was really good last season. Millennial icon Kathryn Westbeld also gave the Mercury good minutes last year and is the only other one of the Mercury’s 2025 “rookies” among the many players in camp. Perhaps that gives her a leg up on the rest, but I think it’s likely a pretty open competition beyond AT, Kah, Mack, Bonner, Whitcomb, Akoa Makani and Ayayi. I also think those seven players are largely going to determine how Phoenix’s season goes.
What’s the Marvel Snap deck?
Much like Thomas, there are few cards in Marvel Snap that can match the widespread statistical output of Fantomex, but it takes a lot of investment to make it happen. I’ll spare those who aren’t familiar with the game the details, but the upshot is that if everything goes right, Fantomex has the potential to invalidate pretty much anything an opponent does. I would argue that it literally puts up a Thomasesque triple-double when that happens. Omega Sentinel can function as something of a backup combo plan, as can Copper, but you have to be on some fairly strong copium to believe it’s the same experience. When Fantomex isn’t comboing off, this deck doesn’t really threaten the best in Snap, and that’s largely where the Mercury are going to be any time AT isn’t barreling towards the rim with hot shooters on the perimeter.
Deck code in alt-text, if you want it!
What’s the expectation?
If guaranteed a full season of good health for Thomas and Copper, I’d say the Mercury look like they’re positioned for a similar regular-season finish to last year’s 27-17 (.614) record and fourth-place tie despite losing Sabally. The rotation certainly loses some top-end punch, but it should still be fairly potent and pose a lot of problems for opponents on the defensive end. The reality, however, is that a full season of good health isn’t, and both of the players I think the Mercury can’t contend without have struggled with injuries. Part of what makes Thomas such a genuine marvel is that she’s gone on her triple-double spree in her 30s (she turned 34 earlier this month) and while dealing with a torn labrum in each shoulder. Copper will turn 32 in August and missed about a third of last season while recovering from knee surgery before averaging her fewest minutes in the 2020s. Even if they’re at full strength, I think the Mercury have gotten worse on paper while several other top contenders got better. The best-case scenario looks like a similar year to 2025, but I think it’s more likely that Phoenix finds itself battling for one of the last playoff spots than home court in the first round this time.