PHOENIX — With the dust mostly settled on a wild, unprecedented WNBA offseason, the Phoenix Mercury enter 2026 betting that continuity and philosophy can outweigh change — even after losing star forward Satou Sabally and navigating a compressed sprint through free agency and the draft, driven by the completion of a new collective bargaining agreement.
“Everything moves really, really quickly,” Mercury GM Nick U’Ren explained in his first media availability of the offseason. “There’s tons of factors, tons of timelines that go into everything. We are really excited about the group we’ve got coming in, in terms of experience, in terms of opportunity. I think we’ve got a ton of depth and a ton of flexibility, and I’m really excited about it.”
While U’Ren expressed how quickly the offseason went behind closed doors, for outsiders following the Mercury it seemed to be the opposite.
After the initial bomb dropped by Annie Costabile on April 7 that Sabally was not expected to return to Phoenix, it was radio silence — at least publicly — when it came to Mercury transactions, as the rest of the league buzzed with signings and movement. The Mercury finally broke their silence on April 12 by announcing the re-signings of Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper, Sami Whitcomb and DeWanna Bonner. Natasha Mack re-signed a day later.
“There’s no doubt some of it is just kind of arbitrary in terms of the timing of the reporting,” U’Ren said of Phoenix’s “slow” offseason. “But certainly proud of our patience and our prudence. You never know, but I think it’ll work out for us in terms of flexibility and maneuverability.”
Of course, the loss of Sabally is the first outcome that comes to mind when examining Phoenix’s offseason. After remodeling the entire roster to bring in her and Thomas just a year ago, the turnover seemed to pay off for everyone with a trip to the 2025 WNBA Finals. Sabally led the team in scoring during the regular season (16.3 points per game) and playoffs (19 points per game), while bringing an intense, yet jolly, energy that fans quickly fell in love with during her lone season in the Valley.
A concussion suffered in Game 3 of the Finals brought an abrupt end to the magic of what had been a storybook season for “the Unicorn,” but still, not many expected Sabally to walk in free agency.
Add on depth guards Lexi Held and Kitija Laksa being lost to the Toronto Tempo in the expansion draft, and all of a sudden, Phoenix would need to fill numerous roster spots in order to become competitive again.
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Instead of going big-fish hunting, U’Ren took a route similar to the one he took a year ago: load up on training camp invites and under-the-radar signings to replace the lost pieces in the aggregate.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a pound-for-pound comparison or replacement,” U’Ren said of replacing Sabally’s production. “I’m excited about the depth of our team. I think depth is hard to find in this league, especially after adding two new teams and more roster spots to each team.”
Notably, the Mercury also chose not to use the league’s core designation on Sabally, or any player, which would have granted them exclusive negotiating rights in free agency. Instead, they prioritized long-term flexibility within a condensed and evolving offseason landscape.
“I’m not going to get too much into the decision in terms of ‘core, not core, which players we thought we might use it on or not …’” U’Ren said. “… So I hate to be vague, but there’s so many different factors that go into all of those decisions.”
Along with re-signing last season’s diamonds in the rough (guard Monique Akoa Makani and forward Kathryn Westbeld), U’Ren and his team are actively looking for more.
31-year-old French forward Valériane Ayayi is the most notable new signing, and only newcomer so far on a standard contract. Despite only briefly playing in the WNBA back in 2015, Ayayi has put together an accomplished resume overseas — including success alongside Thomas as a teammate on EuroLeague team USK Praha.
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With the philosophy of depth and flexibility in mind, Phoenix has also created a crowded and competitive training camp picture. The Mercury currently have 26 players under contract — well above the 18-player camp limit — including a whopping 16 players on training camp deals. That means only four of those players will ultimately earn a spot on the 12-player regular season roster.
“We have some spots that can be earned in camp, similar to last year,” U’Ren said. “And so we want to get our eyes on as many as we can, and especially with some of our other players showing up late, I think it just made a lot of sense to get a lot of eyes on a lot of bodies.”
Two of those players that for sure won’t be making the final roster will be the Mercury’s selections in the 2026 draft: French guard Ines Pitarch-Granel and Hungarian guard Eszter Ratkai. Both are just 19 years old, and have more development ahead of them in international play before coming to the States. Still, U’Ren has a long-term vision for his 27th and 42nd overall selections.
“We’re really, really excited about having them for the future,” U’Ren said. “I think establishing that sort of pipeline of talent is something we didn’t have in years past. So we’re very excited about both of them. They were both drafted really intentionally, but they won’t be with us this year.”
That “pipeline of talent” isn’t limited to draft-and-stash prospects. With Ayayi and several international camp players in the mix, Phoenix is doubling down on the global approach that paid dividends last season. Whitcomb returned to the WNBA from Australia, while Akoa Makani and Westbeld were older rookies that only had overseas experience. All three played major roles during Phoenix’s Finals run, and their inclusion is a model the Mercury appear intent on replicating.
“We go over to Europe and scout a ton,” U’Ren said. “We’ve got an international scout over there doing work on the ground for us. So it’s a year long effort. This is not something where we’re kind of throwing darts at a wall. These are people we’ve targeted. These are people we’ve watched. These are people we’ve identified. And we are looking forward, as we were last year, to see who makes it, who can contribute.”
The global and developmental approach ultimately circles back to the same idea that has defined Phoenix’s offseason from the start: continuity through connection, even in a roster that has been reshaped.
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Despite the turnover, U’Ren emphasized that much of the foundation remains intact from last season’s Finals run, with returning players and new additions expected to blend into a familiar framework rather than overhaul it. After returning just two players from 2024 to 2025 (Copper and Mack), the Mercury will return at least seven into 2026 — solid consistency despite not bringing back Sabally.
“I think we’re returning the majority of our core from last year, and I think we’ve got an exciting mix of experience and opportunity in those who haven’t been here before … We talk about continuity a lot, and I’m hopeful that in year two, we can build on what we did last year.”
The Mercury’s offseason may have looked quiet at times from the outside, but internally, it was anything but. It was a calculated reset based on continuity, training-camp competition and a belief that the margins matter more than the headlines. Still with a handful of relevant free agents on the market and a few roster holes left to fill, it will be interesting to see what U’Ren’s next moves will be ahead of training camp officially opening April 19.