Phoenix Mercury look to build on foundation from Nate Tibbetts’ first year

Although the year didn’t go as Tibbetts or certain Mercury players had planned, they still made progress toward their ultimate goal of creating a new championship culture in the Valley. Tibbetts, with the help of newcomers Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud, took the Mercury from last place in 2023 to the playoffs in 2024. They laid a foundation for what Tibbetts wants this organization to become while he’s at the helm.

“Coming into this year, I think we had six W[NBA] players that have been rotation players. Bec [Allen] and [Sophie Cunningham] our other four, and I think they played a total of 11 games together just because of injuries and stuff like that,” Tibbetts told media on Sept. 26. “So to get done what we got done, especially after the year that they had before, I think it’s a great step in the right direction.”

Does Diana return?

The biggest question mark for the Mercury as they move into the offseason is whether Diana Taurasi will return for another year. During the latter part of the season, the Mercury ran a campaign with the tagline “If this is it…” in reference to the uncertainty surrounding Taurasi’s future. She has yet to publicly announce her plans for next season.

If she does decide to retire, filling her shoes will be a tall task for the Mercury. Outside of Taurasi, other backcourt players on the roster in 2024 were Cloud, Cunningham, rookies Celeste Taylor and Charisma Osborne, and late-season addition Amy Atwell. 

Cloud signed a multi-year contract when she first joined the Mercury in the Valley, and Cunningham signed a one-year extension late in 2024, meaning they’re both set for 2025. But neither Osborne nor Taylor are under contract for the 2025 season. They do have the benefit of being reserved free agents, but there’s no guarantee Phoenix will be able to protect the negotiating rights to both players ahead of the upcoming expansion draft in December.

Osborne played in just two games before being injured in late June. She missed the rest of the season with a lower left leg injury.

Taylor played a total of 15 games with the Mercury, making four starts. In her time in Phoenix, she averaged 3.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Taylor primarily made her mark on defense where she possessed the highest rating of the team, coming in at 98.7. The next best player was rated at 101.1. She also had the highest plus-minus at +17, and she was one of just two players (not counting Osborne) to finish the season with a positive net rating.

“Whenever she’s been given minutes, she’s come in and played extremely hard,” Tibbetts said of Taylor in early September. “I think defensively, you can throw her in the game and feel really comfortable about how she competes, how she understands where to be at that end of the floor. She can guard pick-and-rolls. She fights in the post. She’s a good helper. … Offensively, she does a good job. She understands spacing. She’s a really good cutter on [Brittney Griner’s] post-ups, but we’ve been very pleased with her.”

There is a host of young guard talent in the upcoming WNBA draft, but Phoenix has the rights to New York’s first-round pick, not their own. This means Phoenix will pick somewhere between No. 9 and No. 12 in the 2025 draft after the other teams get their pick of the top guards.

Phoenix’s best bet for finding Taurasi’s immediate successor would likely be in free agency. If she does retire, that frees up a near-supermax contract on Phoenix’s books. This money could go towards finding another superstar free agent or bringing in a pair of players with the available cap space.

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Offseason pursuits

Attacking free agency is one of the Mercury’s primary focuses going into the offseason. In addition to Cloud and Cunningham, Copper and wing Bec Allen are the only four players signed to the Mercury’s roster for next season. Last year, Phoenix signed several top targets, including Cloud and Allen. The Mercury aren’t afraid to make deals to get who they want either, with the Copper trade serving as an example of this mentality last offseason.

“I think when I came into free agency, we really talked about a two-year plan of knowing that we were getting some pieces this year, but this next free agency was going to be a big piece for us,” Cloud said after Phoenix was eliminated from the playoffs on Wednesday.

“[General Manager] Nick [U’Ren] in our front office had a really good offseason last year in getting Cloud, Kah and Bec,” Tibbetts added in postseason interviews on Thursday. “I would expect us to try to make some more moves this offseason. And so that’s part of the job, is to continue to get better, and that’s the goal.”

The Mercury are hoping that owner Mat Ishbia’s commitment to the team, exemplified through the city’s execution of 2024 WNBA All-Star Weekend and the construction of a $100 million practice facility solely for the Mercury’s use, will help attract big-time free agents to the Valley.

Copper and Cloud, two players who were enticed to come to Phoenix for those reasons had some of the most important impacts of any free agent addition around the league. 

Cloud carried a lot of weight for the Mercury defensively. She guarded all five positions on the floor and did so well enough to earn a spot on the WNBA’s All-Defensive Second-Team, an achievement that’s become increasingly harder for guards since the voting for such awards became positionless in 2023. She is the first guard in Mercury history to be named to an All-Defensive team.

On offense, Cloud was the floor general, directing traffic at the point guard position. She finished third in the league in total assists and moved into the top 10 on the league’s all-time assists leaderboard. She averaged a career-high 4.1 rebounds, while her 11.5 points and 6.9 assists per game rank second in her career.

“I’ve just enjoyed coaching [Cloud] each and every day,” Tibbetts said. “She brings a certain vibe and toughness to our group that was needed. This was a team that won nine games a year ago, and she is helping reestablish the culture and who we want to be, and she’s a gamer. She’s a gamer. The bigger the game, the more she’s going to step up, and, yeah, I just love coaching her.”

In her first season with the Mercury, Copper had arguably the best season of her career. She scored a career-high 21.1 points per game and finished third in the league in scoring. Copper finished second in the league with nine 30-point games behind the A’ja Wilson. Her usage rate of 31.1% was the highest in the league.

She was named an All-Star for the fourth straight year and was selected for the first Olympics of her career. She finished eighth in MVP voting with three fourth-place votes and two fifth-place votes. 

But even with her newfound success, even Copper wasn’t prepared for such a high usage rate, and it proved to be unsustainable for Phoenix. Before the Olympic break, Copper averaged 23.2 points per game on 45.4% field-goal shooting and 33.1% 3-point shooting. Post-break, her numbers declined significantly to just 16.8 points per game on 38.5% shooting from the field and 27% from deep. Her usage also dropped from 32.1% to 28.7% after the break.

“This was a tough season. With it being an Olympic year,” Copper said Thursday. “It was a lot mentally, physically. So, yeah, I think, with some people having, the time off, I know that was really helpful, but as a kid, it’s something that you work for and that you want. And I think for me, it was the ultimate goal, so, it’s whatever it takes at this point.”

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Injury improvements

Bringing in superstars is one way Phoenix can improve; another is getting healthy. The Mercury’s core starting five of Taurasi, Griner, Cloud, Copper and Allen only played 11 games together due to injuries to Allen and Griner at the beginning of the season and Allen’s injury post-Olympic break.

On Sept. 21, the Mercury announced that Allen had successfully undergone back surgery and would miss the playoffs. She missed the remainder of the season post-Olympic break due to a hamstring injury suffered while playing in an exhibition match with the Australian national team. 

Allen’s impact on the Mercury was limited to just 18 games, but with her defensive length and timely 3-point shooting, Phoenix fans couldn’t help but wonder if the season’s result would have differed with Allen on the court down the stretch.

“It’s something that I think about but try not to think about because it wasn’t reality,” Tibbetts said. “But our numbers with Bec on the floor were really good all season. And so I know that she’s disappointed in the season that she had, not so much on the court, but just with the injuries. But yeah, just having another reliable veteran W[NBA] player that has been in those situations would have been very valuable.”

Cunningham also played injured for much of the season. She dealt with what she called “a dead collarbone” that she plans to have surgery on to fix over the offseason.

Even with the shoulder trouble, Cunningham filled in on the floor wherever needed. She played in all 40 games, starting in 21. Aside from Griner’s 9-for-18 performance on the year, Cunningham shot a team-best 37.8% from beyond the arc with her bum shoulder. She also averaged the second-most rebounds and assists of her career at 3.9 and 2.0, respectively.

“I was kind of turning into a lefty,” Cunningham said Thursday. “I don’t think I’ve got any practice reps since the beginning of our season with my right hand. So shooting-wise, they won’t let me shoot or do anything right-handed at practice or anything like that. …

“I learned perseverance. I learned to focus on other areas of the game because I was injured. And so for me, I’m proud of myself that I finished the season because it could have been really easy for me just to be like, ‘No, I’m done.’ Some days I couldn’t even brush my hair.”

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Tibbetts’ building blocks

There may still be a lot of areas Phoenix can improve on the court, but one thing Tibbetts and the players are proud of is their ability to build a strong culture in his first year.

Cloud, a longtime veteran of the league, called Tibbetts her favorite coach she’s ever played for. He brought an NBA style of play to the Mercury that the players liked and bought into early on. His first season was far from perfect, but he utilized the wealth of knowledge and experience from his veterans like Taurasi and Griner to learn about and find his footing in the league.

“He has a way of just being consistent,” Cloud said. “He’s a player’s coach. He will be stern on us when he needs to. But I think a lot of times coaches lose their humanness in this business, right? Because if you don’t win, you know what happens. You get fired. So the fact that he’s able to keep his humility as just a great man … I would run through a wall for him any day.”

The Mercury will have their work cut out for them this offseason. Players are utilizing several different avenues to unlock new player developments. Copper and Cloud will take part in Unrivaled’s debut season in Miami. Griner plans to spend time with family, including her newborn son, while taking advantage of the new practice facility. Once she recovers from shoulder surgery, Cunningham wants to work on her game by expanding her shooting range, becoming more efficient in pick-and-roll situations and improving one-on-one as a defender. She’ll also return for her second season as part of the Phoenix Suns broadcast crew.

Whatever progress individual players make and additions the team makes will all play a role in whether the Mercury continue to look forward and build upon this season.

“It was a huge step in the right direction,” Cunningham said. “We have a whole new front office, new coaching staff, pretty much a whole new team, except for three of us. And so you saw sparks of when we were really good. There’s also the other times where we didn’t look so good at all, and so now it’s just about being consistent. But I definitely think that this year, especially as a culture and as a locker room and as an organization as a whole, the feel of it is just way, way better.”

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