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HoopTalk: Takeaways from 2025 Mercury Media Day

Positionless. Leadership. Defense. Pace.

You’ll be hearing these terms a ton throughout the Mercury’s 2025 campaign.

General manager Nick U’Ren put an emphasis on versatility, pass & shoot ability, team that gets up & down the floor when constructing the roster this year.

The term you may hear most of all is “positionless”, referring to the mentality head coach Nate Tibbetts has instilled in the players as they develop their roles within his system.

While Tibbetts isn’t naming a true starting ‘point guard’ for now, the facilitating role will certainly fall on Alyssa Thomas to trigger actions and run the show as a whole.

 

That style lends itself to a ton of creativity and freedom, but it will also present a challenge of defining clear roles, especially in crunch time.

While there’s no replacing Brittney Griner, 6-7 Kalani Brown was brought in to fill that role.

Brown, who’s used to a more traditional play style, is adjusting to the fast pace: “It’s very uncomfortable at first but once I get it down, it’ll get better…be more mobile, be up to touch on the defense.”

With just three returners from last year (Kahleah Copper, Natasha Mack, Celeste Taylor), the squad’s leadership has never been more pivotal.

Most of that responsibility falls on the Big Three in Copper, Thomas, and Satou Sabally.

 

It can’t ALL fall on them, though. That’s where two-time WNBA Champion with the Seattle Storm in Sami Whitcomb comes in.

“There’s a lot of learning now, so I’m trying to help facilitate some of that with the younger players,” Whitcomb said.

 

Not to mention the other pair of returners in Mack and Taylor, who have been helping the new faces get acquainted.

 

It helps that Nate Tibbetts’ coaching philosophy matches the Mercury’s overall environment that “encourages fun, openness & challenges to be better,” as Sabally said:

 

As far as the defensive side of the ball – that was the first thing the squad worked on in training camp. With Thomas being one of the top defensive anchors in the league and Copper leading the charge on the perimeter, Phoenix is planning on hanging their hats on that end of the floor. Copper mentioned how “bought in” everyone is on guarding.

According to guard Sevgi Uzun, the roster’s basketball IQ paired with the chemistry we’ve seen develop early on is what will make PHX truly dangerous as the season progresses.

“It’s nice to have people around you that are paying attention to details,” Uzun said. “I can see the IQ’s gonna be so high on the court & it’s gonna be hard to stop us cause we respond to stuff so quickly…there’s so many players on the court who can read the same thing at the same time.”

This is all good and well during training camp, but we’ll come back to these quotes as adversity begins to take its toll throughout the year.

 

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