Phoenix Mercury aim for more positionless ball

As the Phoenix Mercury wait for a decision from franchise face Diana Taurasi about her playing future, the organization has already gone ahead with a reset.

It lost center Brittney Griner in free agency when she signed with the Atlanta Dream, citing the “people” in that organization and its location for her decision to move her family.

Then in a web of a trade that included four teams, Phoenix sent guards Natasha Cloud and Rebecca Allen to the Connecticut Sun, plus guard Sophie Cunningham to the Indiana Fever.

In that, the Mercury reloaded by adding five-time All-Star Alyssa Thomas from the Sun and former Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally.

How does it all change the team’s playing identity?

“I think we’ll have a chance to play a lot faster. I think we have players who can play multiple positions,” second-year Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Wednesday.

“I am excited for sort of how mobile and fluid and quick this team can play.”

He foresees a more versatile team that can rip the ball out of the net and run, spacing the court with shooters and playmakers.

Look no further than Thomas, who averaged 10.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game last season. Over different seasons, she has led the WNBA in steals and rebounds. Six times she’s made a WNBA All-Defensive team.

Sabally is still just 26 years old and last season averaged 17.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists.

Together, the two new stars join Kahleah Copper, who in her first year with the Mercury proved she could carry the weight as a team’s leading scorer (21.1 points per game).

Those three players are at the core of Phoenix’s revamp.

And that’s before understanding where the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, the 42-year-old Taurasi, fits in. She was given a send-off without assurances the 2024 season would be her last with the Mercury or in the WNBA altogether.

“I don’t have much more information than you guys do,” U’Ren said Wednesday. “That’s her decision to make. We can go on and on about her impact on the team and what she’s meant to the community and the league.

“That’s an extremely personal decision and it’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. And she’ll make it in due time.”

So is the door still open for Taurasi to return to a team that hardly looks the same as last year’s 19-21 squad?

“She and her agent and I speak all the time. I think, like I said, that’s a decision she’ll have to make in her own time but she’ll always have a place in our organization one way or another,” U’Ren said.

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