{"id":432529,"date":"2026-01-27T10:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432529\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:06:23","slug":"phoenix-mercury-are-heading-into-new-era-without-diana-taurasi-and-brittney-griner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432529\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Mercury are heading into new era without Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury will open their first season in 21 years without Diana Taurasi. She\u2019s busy at home enjoying the first few months of retirement.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also no Brittney Griner for the first time since 2012. The game-changing center is now wearing an Atlanta Dream uniform.<\/p>\n

Two of the greatest players of their generation are gone, sending the Mercury into an uncharted new era.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here with a lot of new faces, a lot of hungry people,\u201d new Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said Wednesday during the team\u2019s media day. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to be fun to be part of an organization that\u2019s known for winning has multiple championships and, just overall, has been the top of this thing for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mercury had a good run with Taurasi and Griner.<\/p>\n

Taurasi staked her claim as one of the greatest players<\/a> in women\u2019s basketball history since the Mercury selected her with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 WNBA draft. In the 20 years that followed, she racked up six Olympic gold medals, three league championships and numerous records before calling it a career<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-9 Griner was a force during her 11-year stay in the desert, throwing down dunks and swatting shots like no other player while helping the Mercury win their most recent championship, in 2014. She opted to test free agency and signed a one-year contract with the Dream<\/a>, hoping to set herself up for a bigger contract<\/a> when the league\u2019s new collective bargaining deal is in place next year.<\/p>\n

Those are two big holes to fill, but general manager Nick U\u2019Ren already had the wheels in motion to start the Mercury\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n

Phoenix first acquired Thomas<\/a> in a trade with Connecticut, adding a veteran do-everything forward who\u2019s the WNBA\u2019s career leader with 15 triple-doubles. The 6-2 forward played her entire 11-year career with the Sun, leading them to the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022, and earned a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer.<\/p>\n

With Taurasi\u2019s retirement looming, Phoenix pulled off a three-way trade that brought Sabally to the desert. The 6-4 forward was an All-WNBA first-teamer in 2023, then averaged 17.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in a 2024 season limited to 15 games because of a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cPushing through uncomfortable times really makes us stronger and we are the pros at pushing through adversity,\u201d Sabally said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been through a lot in my life, but it just really makes you appreciate times like this even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rounding out Phoenix\u2019s new Big Three is Kahleah Copper, a dynamic scorer and leader.<\/p>\n

The 6-1 small forward was a three-time All-Star with Chicago before being traded to Phoenix, where she had a massive impact in just one season.<\/p>\n

Copper was the WNBA\u2019s third-leading scorer at 21.1 points per game last season and became a leader on a team that already had two of the game\u2019s best players. She also has a WNBA title under her belt, helping the Sky beat the Mercury in the 2021 finals.<\/p>\n

Now that Taurasi and Griner are gone, Copper fully will take the reins as the team\u2019s leader, pushing teammates new and old to continue the Mercury\u2019s long history of winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re really going to see her kind of like spread her wings and take pride,\u201d second-year Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen it this whole offseason, adding the free agents, and she\u2019s really kind of bought into what we\u2019re about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mercury had no choice but to take a new direction with Taurasi and Griner gone. They\u2019re hoping the new core can lead the franchise along the same winning direction.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury will open their first season in 21 years without Diana Taurasi. She\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[15447,3444,3830,402,5550,14824,16802,16804,16805,18740,5551,16808,99,24324,434,13017,13016],"class_list":["post-432529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alyssa-thomas","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-az-state-wire","tag-basketball","tag-brittney-griner","tag-diana-taurasi","tag-kahleah-copper","tag-nate-tibbetts","tag-nick-uren","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-satou-sabally","tag-sports","tag-sports-transactions","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-womens-national-basketball-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}