PHOENIX — The WNBA’s expanded roster implementation ahead of the 2026 season provided an enormous range of possibilities and opportunities for teams to creatively maneuver, and the Phoenix Mercury have been sure to take advantage of it.
The prior CBA ruled for a 12-player roster maximum, while the new CBA requires a 12-player roster as a minimum, with two additional spots for developmental players that do not count against a team’s roster limit or salary cap.
So far this season, Phoenix has shuffled five players in those developmental spots: Marta Suarez, Shay Ciezki, Sha Carter, Kiana Williams and Kara Dunn. Three of those players currently remain on the team, as Suarez graduated to a standard contract and Ciezki and Dunn currently take up the two developmental slots.
With the Mercury now out of playoff contention, Ciezki and Dunn have been given more chances to play real minutes compared to other developmental players across the league, which they have gladly embraced. It’s something Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said is intentional and will ultimately better the team as a whole moving forward.
“It’s huge,” Tibbetts said at Tuesday’s practice. “We want this to be a place that players feel like they can come in here and get better. It doesn’t matter if you’re one, 12, or player development. When you come in here, we’re going to push all the chips in and be like, ‘How can we help you get better?’
“And the cool thing with us is you have to have players that understand what the job is, what the role is. … [Ciezki and Dunn] know what it is about. It’s an opportunity to get better, and they’ve taken full advantage of that.”
Tibbetts also pointed to the expanded roster itself as a major benefit, allowing teams to keep more young players around and develop them over the course of the season. That development has mostly occurred during practice up until recently.
“It’s the beauty of expanding the roster spots, forcing teams to have 12 instead of going to 11, and then maybe two player development players. That’s big for our league, and you could see it. This was my first practice back today, but just seeing the conversations that they’ve built over the last eight days just practicing together.”
Ciezki’s recent heroics are the current headline in Phoenix, as evidenced by a story highlighting her that was published on Sept. 1. She took an even greater jump in Thursday’s game against the Portland Fire, finishing with a team-high 22 points on 5-of-8 shooting and a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line.
But what about Dunn? While she may not have had a standout game yet like Ciezki, her late-season addition to the Mercury roster serves as a great tale of just how valuable development roster spots are.
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The road back to the Mercury
Dunn’s story from being undrafted out of USC to becoming a WNBA player is one of perseverance and patience. She signed to Phoenix on April 14 to fight for a roster spot during training camp, and she was competitive in doing so.
In Phoenix’s first preseason game against the Chicago Sky, Dunn finished with 13 points in just 12 minutes and didn’t miss: 4-for-4 from the field, 3-for-3 from deep and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. The 5’11 guard also played solid perimeter defense, making her look like a perfect fit in Phoenix’s system.
But an injury to her right knee announced right before Phoenix’s next preseason game squashed that momentum, and with a handful of new players arriving from overseas play afterwards, Dunn ultimately did not make the team and was waived May 5.
Dunn silently rehabbed over the next few months, and on July 26, the time was finally right for her to reunite with the Mercury. But even then, it would take another month for her to see the floor, often not even dressing for games as a coach’s decision DNP.
“She’s got good positional size. That’s why we wanted to bring her back,” Tibbetts said after Dunn made her debut against the Toronto Tempo on Aug. 29. “She had a good training camp for us. She had a little bit of a knee issue that she had to take care of, and she was someone that if she got back close to healthy, that we wanted to look at again, just because of her shooting. … That’s why she’s here. She’s got to keep shooting.”
“Keep shooting” is what Dunn did in that debut game. The first three 3-pointers she attempted all went in during a second quarter that saw the Mercury take a 58-35 lead into halftime. She finished with just those nine points, but continued shooting with confidence, even airballing a three in transition — a shot Tibbetts was happy with her shooting despite the miss.
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“Just getting more comfortable is important to me, and showcasing everything that I can do,” Dunn said postgame. “It’s just one step, so I was really happy about this game.”
The end result of that game was a 101-69 Mercury victory, their largest since the first game of the season. It came without the efforts of stars Kahleah Copper and Kelsey Plum, who were out with injury. Alyssa Thomas only played the first three quarters and scored just four points.
The dominance came largely off the backs of the roster’s younger players: 48.5% of Phoenix’s scoring output came from players who were on a development contract at some point this season.
“I’m happy for them; I’m happy for our staff,” Tibbetts told reporters. “You guys see it when you come in to do media; typically they’re the ones staying late. They’re the ones that are showing up early, and it’s hard when you’re not playing. You’ve got to love it to continue to want to get better. We’ve got some young players that are doing that, and that’s the reason why our staff is pouring into them — just for opportunities like this.”
“I’ve been in that spot before; I know that it can be tough,” veteran guard Sami Whitcomb added. “You have DNPs, or you play two minutes here and there. But I’ve seen all the work that they’ve put in every single day. They’re in that gym longer than all of us. They’re working super hard. They’re super committed. They’re cheering for us all season long, so it was great to get a chance to cheer for them, see them do the things that we know that they’re capable of doing.”
For Dunn, though, simply making it to the WNBA isn’t enough. She and her fellow Mercury “youngins” want to turn these late-season opportunities into something bigger. She knows a couple of games on a developmental contract don’t guarantee anything for the future.
“Obviously, you’re grateful to be here,” Dunn said at Tuesday’s practice. “You’re grateful to be able to work and grow every day, but this isn’t the end goal for us. I even know that for me and for [Ciezki]. So yeah, getting the game reps is ultimately what we want. We want to be able to become players in this league, play like that every single game.”
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The road ahead
Dunn experienced more growing opportunities in Thursday’s win over the Fire, scoring just three points in 13 minutes while still looking to get more comfortable on the court. It wasn’t the flashiest game, but again, the most important thing at this point of the season is getting those game reps and establishing a role on the team.
The Mercury are now 2-0 in games Dunn has appeared in. The youth-led charge in those games is causing a slight shift to the team’s identity, one that is faster. Putting young, fresh legs alongside the visionary passer in Thomas has led to a much more exciting product to watch than the one Phoenix has put out in its previous 39 games.
“I feel like playing fast, at least since I’ve been here, has been something that’s been reinforced to us,” Dunn said. “I think that especially with us youngins [getting] more of a chance last game, whenever we get the chance, we need to run the floor and play fast. That’s what we’re best at.”
On playing with Thomas, Dunn added, “You know that AT is going to do her job regardless. So that means for us, we have to do everything with pace. We have to do everything hard and be ready for the ball because she will hit you if you’re open.”
Perhaps the biggest adjustment for Dunn and the other young players will be on the defensive end. The key to staying in the league long-term, like Dunn wants for herself, is to be able to hang on defense and not be played off the court. It’s something Dunn was already told the importance of during college, but has quickly learned carries even greater weight upon reaching the professional level.
“I’ll always give USC their flowers,” Dunn said. “I feel like that last year that I spent there, a lot of the things that I heard about the league, [head] coach Lindsey [Gottlieb], coach Beth Burns, coach [Courtney] Jaco, they were all telling me. But I feel like once I got here, the defensive end was the biggest thing for me.
“Yes, USC was telling me that, but here I’m having vets tell me, just wanting to have a place in the league, it really pushes you. So I think pushing myself defensively to not only not be a liability, but to be a main option for defense is really important to me.”
That preparation has already started to show itself when opportunities arrive. Ciezki said the young players’ ability to step in and contribute is a product of the work they have put in together long before they ever stepped onto the court in a game.
“We were ready just because of the work that we put in together every single day,” Ciezki said. “I mean, we’re in the gym before practice, after practice. We’re texting each other like, ‘Hey, we getting in the gym today? We going to shoot together?’ Just the little things like that obviously translate on the court.”
With the Mercury’s eyes now set on next year, Dunn and Ciezki have three games left to prove on tape that they can move from a development contract to a standard contract, whether that’s with the Mercury or another team.
From Phoenix’s perspective, it would be great for the pair to continue to play like hidden gems. The roster is in dire need of retooling after the disappointing results of this season, and the Mercury hope to find the right pieces to put around a Big 3 of Thomas, Copper and Plum. Dunn and Ciezki want to prove they can be part of that puzzle.
“From the starters down, you have to be strong,” Dunn said. You know the saying, ‘You’re as strong as your weakest link,’ and I don’t consider us weaklings at all. But we’re younger players, so we’re still trying to find our groove in the league. I think that us competing, especially together every day, and building that culture, building that bond — they see that.”
