PHOENIX \u2014 She\u2019s the one that got away.<\/p>\n
Scratch that. She\u2019s one of many stars who have gotten away from the Sky<\/a>. But Kahleah Copper\u2019s departure hurt badly. She grew into a franchise player in Chicago and stuck around even after the 2021 championship core broke up. Entering her prime, though, the four-time All-Star wanted more than the organization could offer.<\/a><\/p>\n Now she\u2019s at the core of a rebuilt Mercury team making a Finals run few saw coming.<\/p>\n Eating popcorn before shootaround on Saturday in Las Vegas, Copper was asked how she\u2019s changed since winning the 2021 Finals MVP. She exhaled deeply, as if the change defied words. One, though, came close.<\/p>\n \u201cLeader,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Her second year in Phoenix, Copper\u2019s teammates admire the same thing that her Sky teammates always did: her competitive edge. She\u2019ll clap in your face after a steal, talk in your ear after a bucket. She\u2019ll even go \u201cPhilly Kah\u201d once in a while to remind you where she\u2019s from.<\/p>\n But now, even on a Mercury team with all-time greats like DeWanna Boner and Alyssa Thomas, she\u2019s a primary voice in the locker room too.<\/p>\n That voice became even more vital when she missed the first quarter of the season with an injury. Guard Sami Whitcomb, whose timely threes helped take down the Lynx in the semifinals, remembered Copper coaching her to be more aggressive \u2014 to take the kind of shots Copper would take if she were out there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was important for all of us to hear her belief in us,\u201d Whitcomb told the Sun-Times. \u201cTo see her level of engagement on the side was big for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the Mercury\u2019s \u201cBig Three\u201d of Copper, Thomas and Satou Sabally have dominated the playoffs, the beginning of the season belonged to the team\u2019s hidden gems. Players like Kathryn Westbeld and Kitija Laksa had succeeded overseas but never gotten their chance in the W.<\/p>\n Copper was the perfect person to lead a team like that. Drafted No. 7 out of Rutgers, she didn\u2019t get much playing time until her fifth season. She described the early part of her career as constantly having to \u201cwait, wait, wait your turn.\u201d<\/p>\n That experience gives her a relatability few stars have, and it shows in how she talks about her teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t forget those players who held it down when I wasn\u2019t playing, when [Alyssa Thomas] didn\u2019t play,\u201d Copper implored the media at Finals media day. \u201cThey put us in a position to be a four seed.\u201d<\/p>\n * \u201cThe flow, the scores, the amount of points players are scoring \u2014 everything\u2019s jumped up,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said.<\/p>\n The 2024 Mercury leaned hard into new trends. First-year head coach Nate Tibbetts brought his NBA sensibilities with him, and within a month they were launching 30 threes a game. It didn\u2019t lead to success right away \u2014 the Mercury were swept out of the first round last season \u2014 but Tibbetts\u2019 belief in Copper made an impression.<\/p>\n She remembers their first meeting, when he told her she needed to shoot more threes.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think my coaches had ever told me that,\u201d Copper said. \u201cI played in the middy, shot a couple threes, but that wasn\u2019t really my role.\u201d<\/p>\n Her first season in Phoenix, she attempted 220 threes \u2014 a big jump from the 85 she took the year the Sky won the title. She didn\u2019t hesitate anymore, pulling up in transition or with defenders\u2019 hands in her face.<\/p>\n \u201cYou said shoot it \u2014 aight, I\u2019ll shoot it!\u201d she laughed, describing her new mentality.<\/p>\n This season her 3-point percentage ranked fourth among high-volume three-point shooters, and in the Finals she\u2019s shooting a blistering 47.1% from deep.<\/p>\n She\u2019s refined other parts of her offense, too, like passing out of traffic when defenses collapse on her drives. But what she\u2019s most proud of is what\u2019s always defined her: her two-way ability.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to guard the best player and still put on an offensive show \u2014 that\u2019s hard to find in the game today,\u201d Bonner told the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the league is catching up to Copper. Coaches now recognize that two-way guards \u2014 especially those with the athleticism to defend multiple positions \u2014 are at a premium.<\/p>\n Bonner says it\u2019s no coincidence that the two best two-way guards in the league \u2014 Copper and the Aces\u2019 Jackie Young \u2014 are facing each other in the Finals. Teams can\u2019t reach the top without it.<\/p>\n *
If Copper has trouble describing how much she\u2019s changed since winning her first championship, the same could be said for the league itself. Some of the game\u2019s top minds say they hardly recognize it from even two or three years ago.<\/p>\n
So how have the Sky changed since Copper got away?<\/p>\n