WNBA Preview: Mercury faces tough test, WNBA All-Star Game

NBC Sports

a day ago

The 2025 WNBA season has officially hit its halfway point. And besides the upcoming All-Star break, general managers made some decisions at the end of last week in preparation for the August 7 trade deadline. GMs had until Sunday, July 13 at 5 p.m. ET to waive any players on unguaranteed contracts before those unguaranteed salaries became guaranteed.
Players like the Mercury's Kiana Williams, the Lynx's Alissa Pili, the Sparks' Mercedes Russell, the Liberty's Marquesha Davis and the Sun's Haley Peters and Jaelyn Brown were all waived prior to this midpoint deadline.
Why do GMs do this? It usually is a mechanism that allows for teams to maintain salary cap and roster flexibility. Once the midpoint date passes and players clear waivers—it takes 24 hours to do so— teams can sign players to 7-day contracts. In most cases, the teams who waived players can re-sign those same players to these 7-day contracts. A player can only be on a 7-day contract three times until a team then has to sign them to a rest of the season contract. The midpoint also marks a change for hardship contracts as those will also be just 7-day deals until that player reaches the limit of three 7-day contracts.
Meanwhile, the Valkyries waived wing Stephanie Talbot, who was on a protected deal so that they could make room for the expected July 15 arrival of French center Iliana Rupert. To be clear, this wasn't a move done with the midpoint deadline in mind since Golden State has boat loads of cap space. The Valkyries needed to create another roster spot for when Rupert officially arrives.
The Week Ahead
This upcoming week is a shortened one because of the All-Star break that begins on Thursday July 17 and runs through Monday July 21 with games picking back up on July 22.
While there are only three days of regular season games this week, that doesn't mean there aren't great matchups to watch right before the break. The Phoenix Mercury have a really difficult schedule leading into the break and as do the Golden State Valkyries. All of their matchups are must-see. Also, the Indiana Fever's first trip to the loud and rowdy Brooklyn crowd at Barclays Center to take on the Liberty on Wednesday night will for sure be a game to circle.
The WNBA All-Star Game itself probably won't be super competitive on Saturday night, but expect the three-point contest and skills contests on Friday night July 18 to be super-competitive. Insurance company Aflac is giving $60,000 to the winner of the three-point contest and $55,000 to the winner of the skills contest in addition to the much smaller purse that the WNBA provides to the winners of those contests.
Sabrina Ionescu and rookie Sonia Citron are currently the only confirmed participants in the three-point contest, although it wouldn't be shocking if Caitlin Clark joins the fun with All-Star weekend taking place at her team's home in Indianapolis.
(Monday July 14 at 10 p.m. ET on League Pass)
The Valkyries will be going into this game coming off a tough 104-102 loss on Saturday on the road to the Aces. The Mercury, however, will play for the first time in five days. Phoenix will be without Kahleah Copper (right hamstring) and Satou Sabally (right ankle) but will continue to integrate recent signee DeWanna Bonner into their schemes. Can Mercury point forward Alyssa Thomas continue her hot streak which included a 29/8/5 statline in their last game, defeating the Lynx, the league's top team, 79-71? Thomas will likely have to contend against the physical defense of first time All-Star Kayla Thornton in addition to the raucous Golden State crowd also known as 'Ballhalla' to extend their edge in the WNBA standings over the Liberty.
(Wednesday, July 16 at 1 p.m. ET on League Pass)
The Mercury's schedule only gets harder before the All-Star break as they then jet off to Minneapolis for a rematch against the Lynx, a team they beat just a week prior in Phoenix. As of now, the Lynx remain undefeated at home, but their recent struggles against the Chicago Sky at home and on the road prove that the Lynx might have hit a mid-season lull after rolling through the majority of the first half of the regular season. Since losing wing Karlie Samuelson to a Lisfranc injury for the rest of the season on June 29, the Lynx have had to play six games since, the most games in that stretch of time across the league.
(Wednesday, July 16 at 3:00 p.m. ET on League Pass )
Both the Storm and the Valkyries have been incredibly inconsistent in the past couple of weeks of play. In that span, the Storm have lost to the Mystics, the youngest team in the league with the second-worst overall offensive rating. The Valkyries defeated the Fever handily 80-61 last week but then also fell in close games to both the Dream and the Aces. The last time these two teams battled, the Valkyries clobbered the Storm 84-57 and then previously in mid-June Golden State defeated Seattle 76-70. Golden State has struggled to win on the road, only winning three games on the road, including two against the Sparks in Los Angeles. Their first road win outside of the state of California came on July 9 against the Fever.
(Wednesday July 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on CBSSN)
The Fever will play at Barclays Center for the first time this season after splitting their two home games against the defending champs in the Liberty previously. In the first game between these two teams, Jonquel Jones powered the Liberty with a 26/12 double-double. But then once Jones had gone down with a sprained right ankle, the Liberty struggled without her, and Caitlin Clark exploded scoring 32 points in a 102-88 win over New York that kept the Liberty out of the Commissioner's Cup Final. While Jones most likely won't play on Wednesday as she continues to recover and ramp up her conditioning, the Liberty have found ways to win without her since the Fever last played them.
(Saturday July 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC)
Both Napheesa Collier and Caitlin Clark are All-Star captains for the first time in their careers for the 2025 WNBA All-Star game. Collier's team on paper looks a lot more balanced with much more size and versatility including Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike and Paige Bueckers. Clark's is a team that probably will shoot a ton of threes especially with Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally joining Clark from teams that put up a tad under 30 three-balls a game.
When both Clark and Collier chose their teams, they agreed to trade their coaches so that Cheryl Reeve could coach her own player in Collier. Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello will coach Clark, Ionescu and her former player and first-time All-Star Kayla Thornton. Expect this game to be less competitive than the one from last year since Team USA won't be put up against the WNBA All-Stars. When that happens during Olympic years, players who don't make Team USA usually have a chip on their shoulders and show out. This year's game will be much more about entertaining the fans who tune-in instead of trying to beat the players on the other side.