can bring to the table<\/a>\u2014it would be no surprise if Mabrey put together an All-Star-level season in a Tempo uniform\u2014but Lexi Held has largely flown under the radar so far and could be the league\u2019s next surprise breakout player. <\/p>\nHeld, much like Burton, is a versatile defender and talented scorer, who just hasn\u2019t had much of an opportunity to shine in the W quite yet.\u00a0The Tempo could give her that chance, and Held could quickly reward the organization with a breakout year. Even if she won\u2019t find herself in a starting role, she should have a bigger role than with the Phoenix Mercury, and that may be all she needs to wow the WNBA world.<\/p>\n
Lexi Held played well in her rookie season\u00a0![\"Lexi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01knc3s100k0z6cs7rnr.jpg\" "\\"Lexi")
<\/p>\n
Jul 25, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Phoenix Mercury guard Lexi Held (1) at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Held\u2019s journey to the WNBA was slow and difficult. She went undrafted in 2022 after a strong college career with the DePaul Blue Demons. She didn\u2019t land a WNBA contract and went on to play overseas until she finally got her shot last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mercury rounded out their star-studded roster with a group of older rookies. Kathryn Westbeld, Kitija Laksa, and Held all made their WNBA debuts with the team last season after consistently playing well in Europe. A string of injuries pushed them into big roles early on, and they did not disappoint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Held didn\u2019t start a single game last season, but played big minutes in May and June. She took advantage of her opportunity and put together some really solid games, like a 24-point outing in a win against the Valkyries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rest of the team eventually got healthy, and Held had to miss some time with a pneumothorax<\/a> (a partially collapsed lung), which brought the momentum she had built early in the season to a sudden halt. She recovered in time for the playoffs, but only saw the court in two games\u2014five minutes in a blowout win over the Liberty in the first round and seven minutes in Game 4 of the Finals against the Aces.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Valkyries mined teams in the expansion draft, getting several rotational pieces that led the charge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-584946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}