Being the second-oldest team and playoff experience are among the bigger reasons the Phoenix Mercury are returning to the WNBA Finals.
The Mercury’s average player age is 29.5 years, per Spotrac, behind the playoffs’ No. 5 seed and 2024 champion New York Liberty (29.8). Phoenix eliminated New York in Game 3 of their first-round best-of-three series on Sept. 19.
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Then after losing Game 1 in the semifinals to the No. 1 and younger Minnesota Lynx (ranked eighth per their average age 27.3), the Mercury won three straight to knock out the league’s best team, including two thrilling double-digit comebacks: Game 2 in Minneapolis on Sept. 23 and the series-closing Game 4 at home on Sept. 28.
Now, the Mercury are looking to match the league’s record four titles, led by elite veterans Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper, Satou Sabally, DeWanna Bonner and Sami Whitcomb. Thomas is 34, Bonner is 38, Copper is 31, Whitcomb is 37 and Sabally is the youngest among them at 27.
“I’ve been saying it since training camp: For me, it was a Finals year,” Mercury’s MVP finalist Thomas (team-highs 23 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists in Game 4) said. “It’s disappointing to get to the Finals and lose. It’s even extremely harder to get back to the Finals.”
Phoenix finished with a 27-17 record, two wins shy of its franchise-best 29 when the Mercury won their last title in 2014.
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Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren creatively constructed this year’s roster. They traded this year’s No. 3 overall draft pick to the Chicago Sky for 2021 Finals MVP Copper.
Whitcomb was signed to a one-year deal in February 2025. She and Copper have a championship pedigree, having won titles with Seattle in 2020 and Chicago the following year, respectively.
“We were probably the fourth- or fifth-oldest team and then we signed DB (Bonner) and it probably pushed us to the second-oldest (laughs),” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We knew what it was when we signed her.
Phoenix Mercury teammates Satou Sabally (0) and DeWanna Bonner (14) celebrate their 86-81 WNBA semifinal playoff series win over the Minnesota Lynx at PHX Arena on Sept. 28, 2025.
“We’ve done a good job with our undrafted rookies and the last four or five on the roster, but you need veterans in this profession.”
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Bonner spent the first 11 years of her 17-year career in Phoenix, where she won two titles in 2009 and 2014 with Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner.
“I’m home,” Bonner said. “The love has been real since I’ve been back here. There’s no greater feeling than putting on that jersey for me. I’d worn it for 10 straight years and to come back and put it back on, it still feels the same. …
“They welcomed me in the second half of the season, and just felt like a perfect fit.”
Bonner and Thomas have been in Connecticut for the past five seasons, forming one of the league’s top duos.
Bonner joined the No. 6 Indiana in free agency. Because of her decreased role with the Fever, Bonner asked to be released in late June and was signed off on waivers by Phoenix on July 8.
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“Just for her to be back here, back playing together, it’s a bit exciting,” Thomas said about her reunion with Bonner. “It’s exciting for Sa (Sabally) to get her first Finals as well. It’s just a great group. We’re really excited. We’re here with each other, Finals bound and four more to go.”
Mercury’s fall in 2024 led to its rise in 2025
What a difference a year makes, even though the Mercury were the league’s oldest team in 2024.
They were led by Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Copper, one of just two returnees besides Natasha Mack on the Mercury’s roster.
“I think when Nick got the job, obviously the roster construction was a certain way,” Tibbetts said. “The hope was last year to put a competitive team around DT (Taurasi) and make possibly her last year, I thought we did that.”
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Phoenix, which finished 19-21 last season, was swept out of the first round as the No. 7 seed by No. 2 Minnesota, ending a 10-year run as teammates for Taurasi and Griner.
Natasha Cloud, Rebecca Allen and Sophie Cunningham were put in the trade package for Thomas and the three-time All-Star Sabally in a blockbuster, four-team deal in February. That same month, Griner signed with the Atlanta Dream and Taurasi retired.
The Mercury’s plan from two years ago to get back to championship contention is proverbially aging well.
Game 1 of the WNBA Finals is Friday, Oct. 3.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Mercury enter WNBA Finals as league’s 2nd-oldest team
