The Phoenix Mercury had the opportunity to showcase the team's oft-mentioned positionless style of basketball Tuesday night in their first preseason game. The Mercury faced off against the Las Vegas Aces, who barely scraped together an 85-84 win — so something in Arizona is definitely working.
The Mercury are embracing a different style of play this season that emphasizes versatility from every payer on the court. That's why veteran forward Alyssa Thomas was playing the point guard position, something she ran through during the team's training camp last week. While speaking to reporters on April 27, Coach Nate Tibbetts said Thomas will actually play three roles this season: point guard, power forward, and center.
"We talked about positionless last year, but it’s probably going to look a lot more like that this year," he explained. "There's some new feel to it, for sure. We're going to be playing a little bit different, but it feels a lot more comfortable than a year ago."
The Mercury still have some wrinkles to iron out
The concept of positionless basketball is an intriguing one, and the Mercury certainly have the roster to pull it off. With the depature of Mercury stalwarts Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, now is the time to retool the game and see what the team can come up with — and last night they made it clear that there's a method to the seeming madness.
Thomas racked up 5 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds in 15 minutes on the court Tuesday night, a solid preseason debut that promises more. Satou Sabally, who was also playing her first-ever game for the team, played 15 minutes and very nearly hit a point for each one of them, ultimately clocking 14 before she was taken out of the game.
There were mistakes — it's preseason, and that's to be expected — and the Mercury found themselves forced into 20 turnovers to the Aces' 10, but the bright spots shone harder. Thomas and Kathryn Westbeld shared an especially electric moment when the latter caught a long pass from the former and easily laid it up in the second quarter.
Westbeld and Alexis Prince had the opportunity to show off during the second half and amassed 14 and 10 points, respectively. Kalani Brown, who was traded to the Mercury earlier this year, was missing in action until the final quarter of the game, when she added 2 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 turnovers in just over 12 minutes.