PHOENIX — Less than a week ago, the Phoenix Mercury had five active roster spots to fill with more than 12 players in camp vying for them. With about half of those players arriving to camp late, the task of finding the right pieces to put alongside stars Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper became more complicated.
“We’ve got a couple more decisions to make before tomorrow in terms of developmental spots, the very end of the roster, but I think we’re close,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren told reporters at media day on Wednesday.
“One of the things I’ve really liked about our offseason is we’ve got a ton of flexibility. You saw the number of bodies we brought into camp — we’re just trying to get a look at as many people as we can and find some success on the margins. I’m really excited about the maneuverability, flexibility and space we have going into the season.”
It’s something U’Ren has done before. Last season, he found diamonds in the rough in Monique Akoa Makani and Kathryn Westbeld, who emerged as key rotational pieces for a team that went to the WNBA Finals. This time around, Valériane Ayayi — who hasn’t played in the WNBA since 2015 — was signed to a standard contract to headline a new group of hidden gems. But the rest had to battle it out on training camp contracts.
Let’s take a look at the players who made the roster for Phoenix’s season opener, which is against the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday afternoon.
Related reading: 2026 WNBA season preview: Phoenix Mercury
Kiana Williams
If any player on a training camp contract seemed like a lock to make the team, it was Kiana Williams. Not only did Williams appear in 13 games for the Mercury in 2025, but she also quickly showed she had made a significant leap over the offseason.
After averaging 18.6 points on 54.2% 3-point shooting in 12 games for Botaş SK in Turkey, Williams signed with the 3×3 league Unrivaled to be part of its player development pool. From there, she joined the Mercury’s training camp fully embracing her role for head coach Nate Tibbetts as a backup guard who can lead the second unit as a featured option or complement the starters as a pesky defender who can also knock down an open three.
“I’m playing with vets, and I know 10 times out of 10 [Thomas] needs to touch the ball. And I know when I’m in the right spot, the ball is going to find me and I just have to make open shots,” Williams told reporters at media day. “It just comes with more reps … so I’m just getting more comfortable in the offense — knowing where to be, knowing where the hot spots are and just knocking down shots.”
Although Williams averaged just under 10 minutes during the 2025 regular season, she will have an immediate opportunity in 2026. With Akoa Makani out for the start of the season due to international play and veteran Sami Whitcomb out for four to six weeks with a knee injury, Phoenix will need guard help early on. Williams has bounced around the league since going undrafted in 2021, so this is an opportunity the 27-year-old has been waiting years for.
“This year, I’m just a lot more confident,” Williams said. “I know what Nate is expecting both offensively and defensively. So just being the vocal point guard that I am and showing that confidence and that growth.”
If Williams’ strong offseason and preseason can translate to early success in the regular season, then she will become even more important once Akoa Makani and Whitcomb are back — a staple bench piece who can provide depth or a spark whenever the playoff-hopeful Mercury need it.
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Kyara Linskens
One of the Phoenix’s biggest needs this offseason was a floor-spacing center — someone who can open up the offense even more alongside Thomas, an all-around superstar but not someone who will even think about shooting beyond the arc. Despite free agents like Azura Stevens fitting that mold, U’Ren again chose to go the unconventional route and look internationally.
Kyara Linskens arrived for camp late and did not appear in either of the Mercury’s preseason games, but still beat out fellow stretch five Ashten Prechtel for a roster spot. The 29-year-old Belgian has played just 27 minutes in the WNBA, all of them in 2025 with the Golden State Valkyries, but is coming off a dominant season in the Russian Premier League.
Linskens was the starting center and leading scorer for a powerhouse Dynamo Kursk team that went 29-8 and nearly won its league championship. She also led the team in rebounds and blocks and showed some impressive court vision with 104 assists on the season.
But most importantly for the Mercury, Linskens was a threat from long range. Although it wasn’t a primary tool in her game — she attempted just over one 3-pointer per game — she was efficient enough to be respected at 37.8%.
That ability to keep the 3-pointer in her back pocket rather than make it the defining feature of her game may be exactly what makes Linskens such a natural fit in Tibbetts’ system. Off the bench, she offers a different look than starting center Natasha Mack, whose value comes from rim-running, offensive rebounding and doing the dirty work around the basket.
Linskens can still hold her own in those interior areas, but her willingness to step out and force opposing bigs to defend in space gives Phoenix another offensive wrinkle without sacrificing physicality. It also makes the comparisons to fellow Belgian center Emma Meesseman feel a little more fitting as one of Europe’s most versatile frontcourt players.
“Just bring my game, you know? Shooting like they ask, passing, just reading the game, crashing the boards,” Linskens said when asked how she can impact the team. “I really like the way they’re playing — it’s similar to what they do in Europe, a lot of movement.”
Sha Carter
Sha Carter’s path from Division II basketball to making the Mercury’s 2026 roster included stops at Florida Gulf Coast under current Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko and all over the globe — most recently in Greece.
A self-described “all-around kind of player,” the translatable skill Carter seems to hang her hat on the most is defense. The 6′ wing brought noticeable defensive intensity in her 30 minutes of preseason play while also scoring 16 points, mostly by getting to the free-throw line 10 times.
“The thing that I like about her is you could put her on the WNBA floor and she can guard people,” Tibbetts told reporters after a preseason game against the Japanese national team on April 29. “She’s got a physicality to her. She’s going to crash the glass. She’s going to compete.”
The energy Carter brings on the court has already shined off the court as well. In her brief media appearances, she has shown an infectious, bubbly personality — the kind that makes it easy to tell how much finally getting a real WNBA opportunity means to her.
“Every day I just come in and try to be the best Sha,” Carter said after a preseason practice. “Just be positive, bringing some energy, bringing some life to our team. So whatever it is that they see, I just hope I’m doing a good job at it.”
Whether it’s the constant giggling and joking through her own interviews or casually stepping into the pool of reporters to ask teammates who the funniest player on the roster is — prompting answers from Mack and guard Shay Ciezki that point to it being Carter — her presence is already impossible to miss. If first impressions are any indication, she’s going to be a fan favorite in Phoenix.
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Noémie Brochant and Jovana Nogic
U’Ren and the rest of the Mercury front office went back to the international well to add wings Noémie Brochant and Jovana Nogic. Like Linskens, both players were late arrivals and did not play in the Mercury’s preseason games.
Brochant, from France, played for Charleville-Mezieres for the 2025-26 season, where she shot 72-for-173 on 3-point attempts (41.6%) in 38 games. Fitting into Tibbetts and U’Ren’s desire for versatility, Brochant projects to be a player who can do a little bit of everything and be a role player next to Thomas and Copper. She also has the French connection to teammates Akoa Makani and Ayayi.
Nogic is much more of a 3-point specialist. The 6’1 Serbian has a long sharpshooting résumé, mainly overseas but also at Providence, where she set program records with 323 career 3-pointers on 40.8% efficiency. In the 2025-26 season in the Russian Premier League, she shot 43% from beyond the arc on just over four attempts per game.
If Brochant and Nogic can find their footing in the WNBA, both could become important depth pieces for a Mercury team that knows its championship hopes won’t be carried by its stars alone.
Phoenix has built its offense around the playmaking of Thomas and the shot creation of Copper. But sustaining that over a 44-game regular season will require wings who can knock down open shots, defend multiple positions and seamlessly plug into whatever lineup Tibbetts needs on a given night.
“We haven’t had a lot of high [draft] picks here since we’ve been here for three years,” Tibbetts said. “To me, our first-round picks are some of the talent that our front office has found overseas.
“We had some injuries early last year and got to see what some of these other players could do, and now with [Akoa Makani overseas] and [Whitcomb] out a little bit, we’re going to see what [Brochant] and [Nogic] can do — just throw them out there and let’s see what we got. We’re excited that they’re here.”
Peyton Williams and Anneli Maley
In a few final moves before the Mercury’s season opener on Saturday, Phoenix claimed forwards Peyton Williams and Anneli Maley off waivers. They will fill open roster spots created by temporarily suspending Akoa Makani’s and Ayayi’s contracts while they’re still overseas.
While anyone on the roster is a candidate to be waived once Akoa Makani and Ayayi are activated, the lateness of adding Williams and Maley makes it seem like, as of right now, they’d be the first on the chopping block.
However, that doesn’t mean those players don’t have intriguing qualities. Maley brings a decorated international résumé that includes an MVP award in Australia’s top league, the WNBL. Williams adds frontcourt depth after averaging 12.0 points and 7.1 rebounds in China last season. Before that, she had an All-Big 12 career at Kansas State, finishing among the program’s all-time leaders in rebounds and blocks.
Additionally, Phoenix signed Ciezki and Marta Suárez, the No. 16 overall selection in the 2026 WNBA Draft, to developmental contracts.
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Blending talent into a cohesive team
For Tibbetts, the challenge now isn’t reinventing Phoenix’s system for the newcomers, but layering their skill sets into an identity that the players who arrived on Day 1 of camp have already established. Rather than overload the late arrivals with new concepts, Tibbetts spent the final days of camp plugging in pieces one by one, trusting that shooting, versatility and experience will translate as the group grows together.
“You don’t want to add stuff too quickly because you know that there’s more people coming,” Tibbetts said at media day. “We’ve tried to put in who we are, and then the last three days have been pretty awesome, adding those pieces. I think it’s been exciting for our players.”
U’Ren’s philosophy of finding such talent overseas mirrors the patience Tibbetts talks about in regard to developing it. U’Ren previously said that Phoenix is “not throwing darts at the wall,” and he made it even clearer on media day that going after lesser-known pieces internationally isn’t simply a cheaper route to fill vacancies — it’s a meticulous and intentional strategy to gain an upper hand over opponents.
“It’s a year-long pursuit,” U’Ren said. “We’re following leagues from all corners of the world. It usually starts from a statistical perspective, and then we kind of check out players who intrigue us on film.
“So it’s partly their individual talent. It’s partly the experiences they’ve had and the big games they’ve played in. And then a huge part of it is how we think they fit into our team’s identity and the players we have here. So we’re really excited about those additions.”
Looking ahead to what the roster might bring when the regular season starts, Tibbetts added, “It’s been great for our group to keep adding talent. We’re not going to be this finished product [in] Game 1, but we’re going to look different. And I’m excited about how we’re going to look, and we’re going to figure it out and continue to grow as the year goes on.”
