PHOENIX — The Phoenix Mercury have officially completed their transition from the old guard to the new guard with the official introduction of forward Alyssa Thomas on Tuesday.
The Mercury acquired Thomas from the Connecticut Sun in a four-team trade that also landed them forward Satou Sabally from the Dallas Wings. Sabally’s introductory press conference took place earlier this month on Feb. 4.
The additions of Sabally and Thomas are the first step in a new direction for the Mercury, one that became even more clear later Tuesday afternoon with Diana Taurasi announcing her retirement.
Now the torch is in the hands of Sabally and Thomas, at least for the 2025 season.
“Super excited to be here with this group,” Thomas told media Tuesday. “We all come from different backgrounds, different winning backgrounds, and now we get a chance to be together and accomplish something different. It’s time to get back to playoffs. I’m still chasing the championship.”
Thomas was one of the most marquee players on the market during this offseason’s free agency cycle. On Feb. 2, she signed a core contract with the Sun with the intention of it being a sign-and-trade deal.
Multiple factors contributed to Thomas’ desire for a change of scenery, but almost all of the reasons fall under the same umbrella of wanting to play for an organization that invested in its team and women’s sports.
It’s a box that the Mercury have checked off since Mat Ishbia bought the team and assumed ownership in 2023. With the unveiling of their $100 million practice facility during the 2024 All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, the Mercury got to show off to the rest of the league just what investment in the WNBA looked like.
“I was fortunate to be here for the Olympic team back when it first opened and it’s just amazing what they did here,” Thomas said. “Not a lot of teams have this kind of investment, but it just speaks volumes to the organization.”
With everything Phoenix has to offer, the Mercury enticed Thomas to come to the Valley, leaving the only team she’d ever played for in her WNBA career in Connecticut.
In 11 seasons with the Sun, Thomas established herself as one of the league’s premier players. In the last three years, she’s taken her dominance to a new level, being named an All-Star, All-WNBA and All-Defense in each of the last three seasons. She’s also finished in the top 5 in MVP voting in that same span.
At 32, Thomas sits comfortably in her prime and is playing some of the best basketball of her career. It’s no surprise the Mercury took the time to pursue her in free agency.
“It’s easy to say she’s been on our radar since I took the job,” Mercury General Manager Nick U’Ren said Tuesday. “She’s one of the best players in the league. It wasn’t an easy process. These things take a long time to come together, hard to put a specific amount of days on it, but it’s something we’ve thought of for a long time and worked really hard to execute. And we’re just fortunate that it came together when it did.”
With Thomas’s introduction in the books, the Mercury’s new “Big Three,” which also includes Sabally and wing Kahleah Copper, is complete.
The trio adds size, tenacity and physicality that the Mercury are hoping is enough to make them a championship contender. Copper and Sabally are two of the league’s most prolific scorers, while Thomas, although she’s a forward, is one of the league’s best distributors with elite court vision.
“One of the things that excites me the most about these three is just how well they complement each other,” U’Ren said. “I think it’s really easy to envision any of them grabbing a rebound, pushing it in transition themselves. I hope we’ve built a roster that complements those three. And I think you can envision us playing quickly. I think you can envision all three of those players playing multiple positions. I think they’ll play really well off each other.”
For Thomas, playing with high-volume scorers like Sabally and Copper will be different than what she was acquainted with in Connecticut the last couple of years. While the Sun employed a more balanced offensive attack, with few players averaging more than 15 points per game, Sabally and Copper averaged 17.9 and 21.1, respectively.
“It’s fun for me having players like that and just have so many options that you can do and create a lot of mismatches,” Thomas said. “But the biggest thing is, for me, it’s just getting them easy opportunities and making their jobs that much easier.”
Thomas’ willingness and demonstrated prowess when it comes to passing the ball is a much-needed asset for Phoenix. While the Mercury went all in on acquiring Sabally and Thomas – a move that elevates their frontcourt play – the backcourt took a backseat. Sevgi Uzun came over with Sabally from Dallas, and the Mercury signed Sami Whitcomb, but neither of those players is expected to be the answer externally.
The loss of Taurasi to retirement is another blow to the caliber of Phoenix’s backcourt, but it does leave the Mercury with ample cap space – $495,216 according to Her Hoop Stats to be exact – to find a starting point guard and add depth in other spots before the season tips off May 17.
“I think we’re always looking for ways to improve the roster,” U’Ren said. “We’re not going to do something just to do it, but if something comes available to make sense, we’ll look at it for sure.”
In the meantime, Thomas is confident in her abilities to spread the ball and isn’t concerned with the Mercury having a true point guard as the prevailing play styles in the league become more positionless.
With Copper, Sabally and Thomas the Mercury have built a solid foundation for the 2025 season. And although she may be playing in a different jersey for the first time, Thomas still has the same goal she’s had for the first 11 years of her career: win a WNBA championship.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why I came here, just the history of the Mercury and how they’ve won over the years,” Thomas said. “I don’t plan to be any different than I’ve been in my past team in Connecticut. I’m trying to win. I don’t want to drop off. I want to continue to play at the same level, be in playoffs and the goal is a championship.”
