A rebuilding year has gotten even harder for the Mercury.
There is a lot of speculation and chatter around how the Phoenix Mercury will look this WNBA season, as they lost the two biggest legends in their franchise’s history.
These two legends and no doubt first-ballot Hall of Famers are Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner. Taurasi retired after an incredible 20-year career in the WNBA, which included a myriad of accolades, her being a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, an 11-time WNBA All-Star, a five-time WNBA scoring champion, and a 10-time All-WNBA First-Team Honoree. All these accomplishments came with the Mercury who drafted her the first overall pick out of UConn in 2004.
The other icon who departed from the franchise was star center and Taurasi’s partner-in-crime, Brittney Griner, who joined the Atlanta Dream in free agency after not feeling confident and 100% sure that the Mercury wanted to retain her.
While these two pillars are no longer in the Dessert, the Mercury did a good job retooling their roster by adding Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Sun and Satou Sabally of the Dallas Wings this past offseason. They also still have their No. 1 option Kahleah Copper on the roster.
Embed from Getty ImagesHowever, Copper has been fighting through a lingering knee injury. And it was announced on Saturday that Copper will be on the shelf for an extended amount of time.
“Kahleah Copper to miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing knee arthroscopy,” a post from Underdog WNBA wrote on social media.
While it was perhaps good news that Copper will not be missing more than half of the season, this is still a difficult setback for the Mercury. Given how competitive it will be to earn a spot in the playoffs, it is extremely important that all teams get off to a hot start, and this surgery will make it nearly impossible for Phoenix to do that.
A nine-year veteran, Copper, 30, was the WNBA’s third-leading scorer last season, averaging 21.1 points per game in her first season with the Mercury, trailing only Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson’s 26.9 and Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale’s 22.2.
Second-year coach Nate Tibbetts joked during the offseason that the Mercury would have to wear name tags during training camp, but their roster is currently closer to an expansion team, like the Golden State Valkyries, than a title contender in terms of cohesiveness and continuity. They took the floor against the Seattle Storm on Saturday night with zero players from 2024, plus three rookies. Phoenix got the win by 22 points, 81-59.
Hopefully Copper can return to the court sooner rather than later.
