In Saturday night’s win against the New York Liberty, Alyssa Thomas put up 14 points, five rebounds, and nine assists as she helped her team to an important victory over the defending WNBA champions. In the third quarter, she snatched an offensive rebound that pushed her past yet another Phoenix Mercury franchise record. She now has more rebounds in a single season than any player in franchise history.
Thomas now has 303 boards for the 2025 season, ahead of the previous record of 302, set by Brianna Turner, who averaged 9.4 rebounds a game over 32 games in the 2021 season, when a late-season surge from the Mercury landed the team in the WNBA Finals. Turner made All-Defensive First Team that year and was a Defensive Players of the Year candidate. She is now in a reserve role for the Indiana Fever, who are a potential playoff opponent for the Mercury.
While her playmaking gets most of the headlines — she leads the league with 9.2 assists per game and nobody else who has played enough to qualify for the leaderboard averages more than 6.3 — Thomas also been one of the best rebounders in the entire league this year, despite not being particularly tall for a power forward, at 6’2″. Thomas is averaging 8.9 boards a game (her career high is 9.9, set in 2023) and has already broken the Mercury record for double-doubles in a season. She’s third in the league in rebounding, behind only A’ja Wilson and Angel Reese, and is in the top 15 in both defensive (third) and offensive (15th) rebounding.
Jul 27, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas (25) grabs a rebound in the first half against the Washington Mystics at CareFirst Arena. Mandatory Credit: Emily Faith Morgan-Imagn Images / Emily Faith Morgan-Imagn Images
She’s been a force on the glass, helping a Phoenix starting lineup that is frequently at a size disadvantage end possessions, and she’s come up with countless timely offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive on the other end. Just as with her passing and interior scoring, her unique skillset at her size is fundamental to how the Mercury play, and The Engine has been the main driver of the team’s success so far, allowing the rest of the team to excel in their own roles next to her.
AT is one of the league’s leading MVP candidates and with the Mercury catching fire late (they’ve won seven of their last 10), this could finally be the year she gets to take home the coveted award. She’s only been in town for one season, but she’s already established herself as a franchise legend.
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