Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally sat across from each other at a restaurant in Miami in late January, two blocks from their apartment complex at Unrivaled, for a midmorning breakfast before practice.
They had played basketball against each other for years but never on the same team. They made small talk -- how the inaugural season of the new 3-on-3 league would allow them to develop their games, how impressive the resources were at Unrivaled and how having 36 of the WNBA's top players together in one space would create a recruiting frenzy for upcoming free agents.
Only a few weeks earlier, Sabally had told the Dallas Wings she intended to find a new home, making her one of the league's top players on the market. And she had cheekily let her peers in Miami know she was open to bribes and coffee.
Copper texted her coach and general manager with the Phoenix Mercury, telling Nate Tibbetts and Nick U'Ren she was pitching the team to Sabally -- and requested reimbursement for the meal.
"What are you looking for with your next team?" Copper asked Sabally as they ate.
"I need to go into a professional organization, top to bottom, where there are high standards," Sabally recalled to ESPN. "Being surrounded by greatness ... I want to be in a place where I am not setting the standard, but I'm living up to one."
Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner set the bar in Phoenix for the last decade. But with Taurasi likely retiring and Griner rumored to be on the move, the Mercury were entering a new era. If they wanted to contend for a title, they had to redefine themselves and find a new identity.
Three weeks after that breakfast, Sabally informed Phoenix's front office that she wanted to play for the Mercury. U'Ren was already putting the finishing touches on bringing perennial MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas to Phoenix, but a historic four-team trade landed both Sabally and Thomas, establishing a new big three and the start of a new chapter in the desert.
"It's about upholding that legacy and the standard of what they set," Copper told ESPN. "But now it's also taking that next step to greatness -- to the playoffs and to championships and that caliber of organization. It's honoring them, but embracing this new era."
COPPER ASSESSED HER options at the top of the key, finding Thomas with a bounce pass as she cut to the hoop. A Seattle Storm defender nearly intercepted the pass, but Thomas collected it just in time to slingshot the ball to Sabally, who was waiting on the right wing and knocked down a 3-pointer.
Phoenix went on to win that Aug. 17 road game by three points, and that type of play was what Tibbetts and U'Ren envisioned during the offseason, when they had discussed the need to add elite, versatile wings to the roster. In her first season in Phoenix in 2024, Copper had proved to be a reliable scorer, and they wanted to surround her with bigger bodies who could facilitate, supplement scoring and boost the defense.
An elite cutter, Copper would thrive off Thomas' passing, and Sabally -- nicknamed "The Unicorn" because of her shooting and dribbling versatility and size -- could tie it all together. On paper, the trio perfectly fit the position-less style Tibbets, who was an NBA assistant for 12 years, and U'Ren, a former executive with the Golden State Warriors, brought from their NBA backgrounds and wanted to establish in Phoenix.
The Mercury went after Sabally in 2024 when she was a restricted free agent. Though she opted to stay in Dallas for one more year, the seeds were planted. And as whispers that Thomas could be looking for a new home after 11 seasons with the Connecticut Sun, she also became a target of Phoenix.
During the Unrivaled season, Copper reached out to Thomas as well. Since playing with Candace Parker in Chicago -- together they helped the Sky win the 2021 WNBA championship -- Copper had been hunting for another point-forward to play next to. Copper relayed to Thomas that Tibbetts and U'Ren would make her Phoenix's primary ball handler and rely on her to call plays and run the offense. Thomas has been given even more freedom than she expected.
"This year is the most in my career I've initiated the offense," Thomas told ESPN. "It's been an easy transition for me. It's the first time I've had someone from an NBA style, so it's fun to pick their brain on that level."
Thomas is putting together another MVP-caliber season, averaging 16.0 points on 53.8% field goal shooting, both of which are career highs, to go along with 8.9 rebounds, 9.2 assists (another career high) and 1.6 steals. She has tallied a WNBA single-season record seven triple-doubles this year, three of which came in consecutive games, and on Aug. 26 became the first player in league history to record a 10-point, 15-rebound, 15-assist game.
"She's done this her entire career, but she's doing it now at a new clip," Tibbetts told ESPN. "The thing I've been wowed with is how much she loves to compete, how much she wants to win, and what she's willing to do to accomplish that."
Playing together has allowed Thomas, Sabally (team-high 16.5 PPG) and Copper (16.0) to play fewer minutes without sacrificing impact.
"Playing next to them, it feels like it also takes weight off of you in games," said Sabally, who's averaging 26.8 minutes per game, down from 34.1 in 2024. "I can just play my minutes with maximum intensity, rather than the maximum amount of time."
Injuries have prevented them from playing together as often as they'd hoped. Chemistry is tough to come by when Copper (left knee) was sidelined for the first 4½ weeks of the season, Thomas (left calf) missed five games between May and June and Sabally (right ankle) was out two weeks in July.
But when all three players are available, the Mercury are 13-9 and have a net rating of plus-10. According to Second Spectrum, the Mercury score 1.06 points per possession and allow just 0.99 points per possession on defense when Sabally, Copper and Thomas share the court -- ranking in the top six of both categories in the WNBA over a full season.
"Real winners don't want to do it alone," Copper said. "You want the help, you want to surround yourself with greats. That's a big reason why I was pressing them to come and join me."
FOUR GAMES REMAIN in the regular season. Phoenix is one of five teams that have clinched a playoff berth. Now the focus for the final stretch is integrating all of the pieces together for a postseason push.
Depth was one of the biggest questions entering the season but got established early when Tibbetts threw different lineups and combinations together to see what would work. It wasn't the ideal way to start the year, but key contributors emerged, such as unconventional rookies Monique Akoa Makani -- a 24-year-old guard from Cameroon who has played professionally in France the past six years -- and Kathryn Westbeld, 29, who was part of Notre Dame's NCAA championship team in 2018.
Phoenix is bringing the heat to the playoffs 🔥
— espnW (@espnW) August 30, 2025
The Mercury clinch a spot with a Dream win 👏 pic.twitter.com/OEEBPwlzaH
Seven Mercury players have started at least 19 games, and 10 players average at least 15 minutes per game.
"[It's] not only having depth, but trusting that depth," Copper said. "We have so many players who are threats. They take one thing away, we're playing to the next option."
In early July, the Mercury signed DeWanna Bonner, who returned to the franchise she helped in winning WNBA titles in 2009 and 2014. She has now settled in as the team's fourth double-digit scorer (11.6 PPG). Finally, in mid-July, their big three were healthy.
"The exciting part is the success we are having when we haven't had much time," Copper said. "That's such a plus. If we continue to have this time together and we continue to build before the playoffs, that's big-time for us. We are having success and we're just out there freestyling."
The Mercury have won five consecutive games and seven of their last eight dating back to that win over Seattle. Phoenix, the Atlanta Dream and Las Vegas Aces are all six games behind the league-leading Minnesota Lynx, but the Mercury sit in fourth place in the standings through Wednesday's games as they are 1-3 against the Aces and 0-3 against the Dream. Home-court advantage might not be decided until the last few days of the season.
Tibbetts has cautioned his players not to get caught up in watching the standings, advising them to find a balance between being aware of where they are but not focusing too much on other teams' results.
Phoenix, he said, must focus on what it can control: continued growth and development.
Sabally said recently that the Mercury were 80% of where they want to be for the postseason, but as they've continued to get more reps as a complete team, they've become more confident in what their ceiling can be this year.
"We knew that we had to stay patient," Sabally said. "We kept saying be patient, trust the process, everything will come together. We just have to peak at the right time."