Phoenix Mercury offseason hinges on re-signing Kelsey Plum

Nothing is more important for the Phoenix Mercury going into 2027 than re-signing Kelsey Plum.

Additional moves will be required to reverse an 11-game slide this season to 16-28 and fall from the 2025 WNBA Finals to out of the playoffs. But retaining Plum is paramount because of her all-league ability and what the Mercury gave up acquiring her in an Aug. 2 trade (lottery first-round draft pick and Monique Akoa Makani). 

Plum played in only five of the Mercury’s final 14 games due to injury that limited her to 12 games before the trade with Los Angeles. Still, she averaged a career-high 21.5 points this season and when healthy at 32 is a foundational piece for whomever she signs with as an unrestricted free agent.

If it’s not the Mercury then nothing else they do in the offseason will offset what would become the worst trade in team history.

“She’s an incredible human, incredible teammate, incredible player,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren said Friday, less than 24 hours after a season-ending 100-82 loss to Las Vegas. “We wanted that in our building. She’s great for us in the locker room, on and off the floor. 

“We certainly hope this is her home moving forward. We’re committed to doing that. That’s the reason we brought her in.”

Plum’s plan is to go through free agency before making a decision. Assuming there already is no back-room deal, U’Ren will need to sweat out four months until free agents are allowed to sign in February. 

Plum was not available to the media Friday. Alyssa Thomas passed on a question about her, but Kahleah Copper spoke about the prospect of a full season with those three stars.

“It’s a great combination,” said Copper, who also averaged a career-high 21.5 points over 40 games. “You think about it from the beginning of the season, being able to build chemistry.”

“Her resume speaks for itself & compliments what’s already here.”

Kahleah Copper on why Kelsey Plum should re-sign with #Mercury @Sports360AZ pic.twitter.com/4qudXJs82C

— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) September 25, 2026

Copper also is 32 and Thomas, who led the WNBA in assists for a second straight year while setting a league record with 358 dimes, is 34. Both are under contract for 2027 and Thomas also for 2028. Natasha Mack and Sami Whitcomb are the other players signed for next season. 

Having three $1-million players would take up 53 percent of the Mercury’s 2027 salary cap with another 14 percent for Whitcomb and Mack. That would leave roughly 30 percent for the remainder of the 12-player roster. 

U’Ren, completing his third season like coach Nate Tibbetts, is as even keel as it gets but also not afraid to take risks like trading for Plum. It’s not impossible to imagine him re-signing Plum while fielding trade offers for Thomas, particularly if the net result if the Mercury getting bigger and younger.

“Size across the board is important at all levels of basketball,” U’Ren said. “They don’t grow on trees and are not easy to find. We struggled defensively this year, and we’ve got to get better. Some of that just comes with raw size.”

The Mercury allowed 87.6 points per game this season, up from 80.1 in 2025. They were in the bottom half of almost all traditional statistics and dead last in opponent 3-point percentage. 

Tibbetts said, “We weren’t great offensively or defensively. You want to be in the top five in both. We want to hang our hat at the defensive end. Offensively, we’ve got to get better too.”

An opening 99-66 win at Las Vegas notwithstanding, the Mercury started slow at 2-8. Katherine Westbeld suffered a season-ending injury overseas and Whitcomb missed the first half of the season due to injury. Jovana Nogic, the quickest international addition in adapting to the WNBA, left the team after 16 games when the Mercury were 4-12.

The best chance to course correct was around midseason after climbing to 8-13. Instead, the Mercury lost five straight games and playoff hopes were essentially extinguished before the end of July. 

“Missing Kat, Sami for a majority of the year and Yoyo (Nogic), those are three pretty elite shooters for a group that would like to shoot threes,” Tibbetts said. “Those three would definitely have made an impact.”

“It’s something I don’t ever want to feel again & next season, definitely, will be different.”#Mercury Alyssa Thomas on not being used to missing the playoffs:@Sports360AZ pic.twitter.com/lWHV9sqOmE

— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) September 25, 2026

The Mercury finished 10th in 3-point shooting percentage, down from sixth in 2025. They dropped from seventh to 11th in scoring even though their scoring average increased from 82.8 to 84.4, a sign of how fast league scoring is rising.

“The league is just getting better and better and the margin for error is becoming smaller and smaller,” Thomas said. “People are pushing themselves to another limit. You just got to come back better each and every season.”

Thomas is missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The Mercury did not advance beyond the regular season for the second time since 2013 but both are within the last four years. 

The Mercury have finished below .500 in the season after a WNBA Finals appearance five times out of six. They still made the playoffs in three of those seasons but not in 1999, 2008 and now 2026 when it took 26 wins to qualify.

The Mercury have not missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons since a six-year drought from 2001-06. 

The regular season increases in 2027 from 44 to 50 games so having roster depth will be essential.

The Mercury have second- and third-round draft picks in 2027. They also hold rights to international players Helena Pueyo (Spain), Lee-Seul Kang (South Korea), Klara Lundquist (Sweden), Ines Pitarch-Granel (France) and Eszter Ratkai (Hungary), all yet to play in the WNBA. 

U’Ren said, “Europe’s a market we have to continue to explore,” especially with three more expansion teams coming from 2028-30. “Talent’s got to come from somewhere. There’s amazing talent all over the world. It’s an avenue we will continue to explore. I’m excited about our rights players and some of the players we have in our pipeline.”