PHOENIX \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury\u00a0were honoring Diana Taurasi a few weeks ago\u00a0when the franchise great turned toward Kelsey Plum, who was sitting just a few feet away. Taurasi broke into a wide grin, then said three words \u2014 drawing them out for effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cSign the extension,\u201d she said as more than 16,000 fans in the arena roared.<\/p>\n
It’s been a disappointing season for the Mercury, who will miss the playoffs one year after playing in the WNBA Finals and have a 13-26 record through Thursday’s games. But there’s a fair degree of optimism around the franchise these days and that’s because of the\u00a0blockbuster trade that brought Plum\u00a0to the desert on Aug. 2.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old and five-time All-Star is still in the prime of her career and could give the Mercury a new franchise cornerstone. There’s only one catch: She’s a free agent at the end of this season and gets to choose where she’ll play in 2027.<\/p>\n
Plum didn’t say if Taurasi’s endorsement will affect her decision to sign an extension in Phoenix \u2014 but it sure didn’t seem to hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cD.T. was the reason I started playing basketball,\u201d Plum said. \u201cSo that was kind of a full circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plum made her home debut with the Mercury\u00a0on Tuesday in a 94-84 loss\u00a0to the Washington Mystics, coming off the bench to score 10 points over 17 minutes. The 5-foot-8 guard has nursed a calf injury for much of the past few months and will likely be on a minutes restriction for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Plum sat out Thursday’s game as the team continues to be cautious.<\/p>\n
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said he’s been encouraged by Plum’s limited time on the court, especially the way she plays with veteran forward Alyssa Thomas. If everything works out with contract situations, Plum, Thomas and high-scoring guard Kahleah Copper would form the nucleus of the team in 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are reps that we need,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cI thought the second half we looked a little bit better. We haven’t had a ton of practice time with K.P. \u2014 but your point is very valid that it does look very natural for those two veteran players who know how to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plum agreed that she’s quickly gaining chemistry with her new team, particularly Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cA.T. is amazing \u2014 phenomenal passer, extremely skilled, great anticipation, plays amazing in transition,\u201d Plum said. \u201cJust trying play off of her, learn her, where she likes to get ball screens set, where she likes to pass. It’s a learning-on-the-fly type of situation, but she makes it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plum conceded that the calf injury has led to some frustration as she tries to adapt to her new surroundings, but she’s pushing through the best she can. The veteran has been healthy for most of her career besides a ruptured Achilles tendon that caused her to miss the 2020 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve never been in a situation like this before \u2014 2020 was kind of an anomaly,\u201d Plum said. “For me, I’ve learned a lot this year. And through it all, I feel like it’ll carry me well moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it’s brought me here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury\u00a0were honoring Diana Taurasi a few weeks ago\u00a0when the franchise great turned toward Kelsey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-875121","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\/875121","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=875121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}