I have had two separate friends who are sports fans who don’t really watch the WNBA talk to me about how awful the AT “punch” was and how other players are targeting Caitlin. Obviously CC has a large fanbase that is mostly focused on her and her team.

Today’s media is less about journalistic integrity and more about generating clicks and views, because that’s what generates revenue today. The large CC fanbase means that the media will also focus on her, and anything that hurts her will generate even more clicks due to their outrage. That same media (which has to be slanted toward Clark for clicks) then seeps out to the general sports community. Since all of these outlets are saying the same thing to vie for the CC clicks, it becomes established fact in the sports world.

The sports media at large didn’t talk about the AT play being an ordinary loose ball scrum. They didn’t talk about how nobody on the Fever reacted at the time due to the lack of severity. They don’t talk about any of that, because they have to focus on AT “punching” Clark. I haven’t seen one discuss the racial abuse focused on the Mercury team and players individually.

The league, who has an incompetent commissioner, then bowed to the generated outrage. They failed to follow their own protocols, and suspended AT. They’ve done nothing to address the racial abuse. They’ve done nothing to support Alyssa. CC has also said nothing to stop her fans’ behavior.

Do any of y’all have any media outlets that I can direct people to for an alternative view? I hate how our digital media landscape is creating this universal view that CC is just a victim and target instead of an active participant in it.

I think I'm going to go with Mystics. I'm envious of their youth and defense. That's something I hope we had more of, so they've grown on me a lot this year.

I'd be okay with Valkyries or Dream too, I just don't want Aces, Lynx, Fever or Liberty to win.

Wings don't have a chance in my view, which is why I didn't incl​ude them in either group.

Look I know full well her reputation for locker room drama, and maybe it just isn't worth it; but here's where I'm at: we desperately need another player who can make buckets besides Kah with whom AT can set up plays. The AT-Cooper-Sabally trio (assisted by DB) was magic last year and we just haven't been able to get back to that without another great shooter on the roster. Losing Nogic and Mack being injured hasn't helped and the game against the Sky this week was just demoralizing. Feels like what we're doing still isn't working and if ever there was time for a Hail Mary, this is it.

Carter was averaging 12.2 points per game for the Aces in just 16.9 minutes with similarly great efficiency stats. Yes she's weaker on defense, but that's not what we need her for anyways. I'm struggling to believe that Carter is such locker room poison that even if picking her up doesn't work out long term, isn't it at least worth trying to salvage this season?

Would love to hear y'all's thoughts on this because I can't tell if this is galaxy brain thinking on my part or just the obvious thing to do? Maybe both?

After missing the playoffs, Phoenix has some important decisions to make.

Should the Mercury prioritize bringing Plum back, even if it requires a major financial commitment? Or should they use that money to address multiple roster needs?
What contract length and salary would you be comfortable with?

I’m curious where everyone draws the line between keeping a proven scorer and building a more balanced roster.

It’s probably too late to make the playoffs this season but Plum/Copper/Thomas/Bonner/Mack could be formidable in the future.

We have reached the point in the season where I believe we have made the possibility of making the playoffs so improbable (would require at worst a 14-5 finish) that I would like to focus on the future instead of the present season. Specifically, I want to look at the 2027 WNBA draft lottery.

As you probably know, the lottery odds are inversely based on a two year winning percentage of the teams that did not make the playoffs. The exception to that is obviously Toronto and Portland who are in their inaugural seasons. The current standings and current draft lottery odds are below:

Our 27-17 record last year has scuttled our shot at great lottery odds this year despite our poor record so far this year. If we continue to lose 2 out of every 3 games we play we will finish the season 14-30. That would give us a 2 year record of 41-47 or a win percentage of 0.466. That won’t be great for the draft lottery odds as that would slot us in the 6^th position if we look at the above image. Who needs to win some games and who needs to lose some games to help us better our lottery odds? Let’s go case by case.

First off, the important thing to remember is if you make the playoffs, it doesn’t matter how bad you were the previous season, you are out of the lottery. That means the Wings (looking like a lock) and Mystics (iffy) making the playoffs kick their respective 2025% of .227 and .364 out of the lottery.

The Sun and Sky were awful last year as well as this year. Neither will be making the playoffs, so they are both locked into better odds than we are although Washington owns the Chicago pick.

The next teams to look at are the newbies. If Toronto and Portland can get to 21-23 (11-9 finishes) it would bump their win percentage to .477 and get our hypothetical 14-30 team two positions better, so these two winnings are a good thing for our odds.

Seattle just lost to Chicago to fall to 6-20. They finished 4 games worse than us last season, and with our season sweep, I think they hold any lottery tiebreaker with us. That means they would need to finish 5 games BETTER than us this season for us to get better odds. If we finish with 14 wins, the Storm would need to finish with a 19-25 record, which means they would need to finish their last 18 games at a 13-5 pace. That’s not happening making Seattle the 3^rd team to have better odds than us.

The last team to look at currently in a lottery position is Los Angeles. The Sparks are just two games out of the playoffs, so the best thing for our odds is for the Sparks to make it into the top 8 and bump with NY or Atlanta out as both will finish with high 2 year win% than us. If LA doesn’t make it in, that is ok. If they can match or beat last year’s record of 21-23, that would bump them above our hypothetical 14-30 Mercury.

TL;DR: In conclusion, it really doesn’t matter what Connecticut, Chicago, or Seattle do the rest of the season. We want Washington to make the playoffs. We want Toronto, LA, and Portland to get near .500 if not make the playoffs knocking out either NY or Atlanta or both. If that happens, we will finish with the 4^th best odds or a #1 draft pick, which could drastically change our outlook on 2027.

KP isn't going to re-sign with the Sparks in the offseason and is likely on the trading block. Ideally we sign her in the offseason without giving up assets but if we are buyers at the deadline, who are you willing to part with? They're good on bigs so Mack should be safe. And their front office is dumb. They gave Rickea to the Sky for free.

She wouldn't help our defense but I think she'd fit in super well. She's kinda the guard heir of DT personality wise and is a walking bucket. I am officially on the KP to Phoenix train.

I personally am very willing to give up Brochant and Nogic's rights depending on if she wants to come back or not. And both second round picks.

I have recently heard a rumor from someone pretty close to the team that DT has been at practice recently and might join the team for the rest of the season the night her number is retired. Could wear 23 as 3 won’t be available. Anyone else hearing this?

EDIT: It's confirmed that Nogic is out for the season

With Nogic suspended and a million injuries, we've gotta sign someone eventually.

I'm thinking a big depending on Mack's timeline since Nate isn't all-in on Linskens. I think Sami will be back in the next few weeks and can replace Nogic's production. But who should we actually target? Should we raid a development spot? (looking at you Kate Martin)

Hey guys!! Storm fan here!! big fan of AT. just wanted to say i’m so sorry how AT and mercury fans are being treated in the WNBA subreddit. It’s totally not acceptable. My husband and I have inferred that the is probably due to her being more “masculine” then someone like Phee or Aja. Rooting for you guys to win it all ❤️

With that Chicago game (thankfully) in the rear view, the Mercury (8-14) have officially hit the halfway point of the season. It’s safe to say that this season is not turning out like any of us would have predicted.

In order to make the playoffs, the Merc need to jump several teams in the standings and get to 8th which has been held by teams at or near .500 most of the season. That means over these next 22 games, Phoenix needs to win at least 14 to even make the tournament.

I’m not going to lie, I don’t see it happening without something huge to jumpstart the team. Could that be Sami getting her season started? Maybe. I think they need something bigger though. Probably a trade or a coaching change. Maybe that’s just me being down after that brutal loss to the Sky. I felt the team had turned a corner before that game, but what a terrible regression that was!

What do y’all think? Can they claw into the playoff picture? What do you think can spark a real turnaround?

The WNBA trade deadline is coming August 2. The Mercury are currently 10-18 and 5 games behind Washington for the 8th and final playoff spot. There are two games (GSV and NYL at home) before the deadline so we could be anywhere from 12-18 to 10-20 at the deadline.

Trade deadline moves aren’t as common in the W as in other sports, but what do you think we should do as we get close to the deadline?

Sorry for the rant. But refusing to play Linskens in a blow out… I just don’t get it.

Linskens is our uncontested starting center for the Belgian national team. Not saying our team has the same level as USA or France, but we are a solid top 5 country.

And to simply DNP her so many games, it’s beyond me

True story: last year I sat down to watch a game, spent 15 minutes discovering it had moved to an app I forgot I paid for, and snapped. So I started building.

Following the WNBA has quietly become the hardest scavenger hunt in sports — in a single week games will be scattered across ABC, ESPN/ESPN+, CBS, ION, NBA TV, Prime, and League Pass, and it feels like it changes all the time. So this is what the app does this: you pick your teams and the services you already pay for, and it tells you what's on today, when, and which of YOUR services carries each game — plus a morning email with the day's slate, and an algorithm that checks whether you're overpaying for coverage you could get cheaper.

It does other cool stuff –you get all of your team’s curated news, podcasts, Bluesky posts and more (soon to integrate reddit!). Think of it as the ultimate “sports newspaper” for the teams that you follow.

Check it out at mysportsdeck.com, or the iPhone app on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sportsdeck/id6782425279.

Also, it’s free for up to 3 teams.

Full disclosure: I built it, obviously. I’m a coder and a former lawyer, so I did most of the work but I did use AI for some design stuff. In any event, I'm posting here because this community lives the problem it tries to solve — so tell me what it's missing (if it gets a WNBA broadcast wrong, that's exactly what I need to hear). I'll be in the comments! Thanks y’all – I’m proud of this one and I hope you like it.

I didn't even have a reddit account and I created this one specifically to write this, because I'm pissed off.

I really don't get why her minutes got cut. Everyone keeps saying how she's terrible defensively, like the other players are some defensive specialists. After she went to the bench the first time she was on the court, the lead kept getting bigger and bigger and it showed that she wasn't the only reason defense was poor. We were -3 during her first ~3 minute spell on the court. (that would equate to -9,-10 over the quarter, we lost the Q1 by 13). The difference between her offense and the other player's offense is much bigger than the difference between her defense and the other player's defense.

Also, if you look at the results and performances, the best results and performances were when she was given a bigger role, and the worst performance was in the latest game, where she was given the smallest role.

Adjust your defense so that she isn't that exposed.

What are yalls opinions on our teams outlook this season? Personally, I think we were doomed ever since we let Sabally walk for nothing

Sabally was really the glue to our team. Solid defensively while also attracting the toughest defensive covers so everyone else could get better looks.

This helps AT a ton bc realistically, she’s a negative on offense. Can’t score or shoot the ball at all to the point where opposing defenses are just leaving her open or fouling her knowing she won’t hit 2/2 free throws and will miss any shot that’s not literally 1ft under the rim. When she’s not scoring, all her passing gravity vanishes and nobody else is generating open looks like Sabally was.

We clearly didn’t do a good job of replacing the offensive void Sabally left. DB and AT are looking washed, and Kah can’t handle all the tough defensive coverages. And to top it off, Nogic, one of our most promising young players, is getting her minutes cut LOL.

Either we make a crazy trade (I like Angel Reese for the elite rebounding + hustle and decent offense) sometime this season or it’s cooked IMO

Has anybody heard any free agent rumors or is it too early and any specific targets y’all want?

What’s going on? Allegedly (reported by underdog WNBA) suspended her contract and her latest IG story says “spending a lot of years in a place doesn’t make you any different. Business is business and the people handling it will always show their real faces at some point. Players be really careful about who you call family and home”

I don’t want to immediately jump to any conclusions but what a crazy turnaround from the excitement about her debut from the press conference 24 hours ago.

Is she going overseas for something?

Team is looking pretty much the same as of now (thank god) with the exception of Satou, Kit and Lexi. Who of the big name free agents are left that we could potentially pick up? I feel like we really need someone to replace Satou.

So someone said this on x Really don't get the Merc's plan this offseason

Knew they would lose Sabally, but still operated like a capped out team adding unproven overseas players who fit the scheme

Unless there's a last minute trade coming, tough way to run back a Finals team.

and even tho i think they will be alright i still wonder

you knew Satou was leaving, and you didn’t core her or at least try to get someone like Fiebich or Betnijah. We went into free agency with the second-most cap space, and other than retaining some players from last year, you didn’t bring in a single free agent who wasn’t overseas. I still feel like they’ll be good, but man!

Thoughts?

I tried to look it up but AI has overpowered trying to find information these days.

This thread will be up the whole time during the finals.

Now that Ciezki, Jensen, Maly and Alleyne have been waived, how do you think the roster on opening day will look like?

Who do you consider a lock and who is still competing for a roster spot on each position?

Are we still looking for new players?

If so, why??

Down 0-3 is pretty much a death sentence but I'm not giving up yet. I feel they have to just get one, make sure they don't get swept, and not have the Aces celebrate on their own court. Sounds cliche but take it one game at a time and don't think about trying to win 4 straight.