ESPN’s LaChina Robinson on Mercury: ‘They have everything that you need to contend for a championship’

The injury-plagued Phoenix Mercury are entering the WNBA All-Star/Olympic break 13-12 as they will look to recuperate and come back healthy when the season returns in mid-August.

While players like Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud have been at the forefront of the turnaround from a 9-31 season in 2023, the Mercury have only had a handful of games this season in which they were at full strength.

Brittney Griner suffered a toe fracture on her left foot, Diana Taurasi has recently battled a left lower leg injury, Rebecca Allen and Sug Sutton have been injured multiple times and others have been out at various points, making it difficult to build chemistry and form consistency with the lineup changing practically every other game.

With the challenges that the Mercury has had to deal with so far and them adapting to first-year head coach Nate Tibbetts’ systems, sitting in the sixth seed in the WNBA before going into this month-long break is promising.

WNBA expert high on Mercury’s potential

In mid-June, ESPN WNBA analyst and WNBA Countdown host LaChina Robinson was a big believer in the Mercury and what they can do this season. So much so that she projected that Phoenix is a dark horse to dethrone the back-to-back WNBA champions, the Las Vegas Aces, from a three-peat.

About a month later, she kept that same energy when she joined ESPN‘s WNBA play-by-play commentator Ryan Ruocco, women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo and Vice President of Production Sara Gaiero in a Zoom media availability on Wednesday ahead of the 2024 AT&T WNBA All-Star festivities beginning later this week.

“I really still believe in the Phoenix Mercury,” Robinson said. “When I look at their roster and the lineups they can put out on the floor, they have everything that you need to contend for a championship. Obviously Diana Taurasi [is] playing great this season. Brittney Griner, no one can guard her two feet in the paint. Kahleah Copper is having a breakout season with [more] 30-point performances than she has had in her career by far. And then Natasha Cloud not only continuing what she has done on the defensive end, but is also adding an offensive spark. Rebecca Allen has had her moments and you still have Sophie Cunningham coming off the bench. I can go on and on and on.”

The Mercury are 8-4 at home and after starting 2-6 on the road, they are now 5-8 away from the Valley.

Coming into a new situation and immediately making a substantial impact, Copper leads the league in most 30-plus point games (8) and is second in scoring per game (23.2 points) while Cloud is third in assists per game (7.3).

But even though she was thoroughly impressed with the players on the roster and thinks they have a legitimate chance that they have to win the title this year, Robinson pointed out that health has been a problem that has prevented Phoenix from reaching their true potential this year just yet.

“I just believe on paper, this team has all the pieces that can compete for a championship. Now health has been the issue to date, starting without Brittney Griner, Rebecca Allen has been in and out of the lineup, Diana Taurasi is out injured and even Cloud missed a game a couple ago. If they can stay healthy, they have all of the pieces but it takes time. Adding in two players in Copper and Cloud and working on that chemistry is a big part, but you got to be healthy to do that… Hopefully they are contenders or at least be in the conversation at the end of the regular season once they can get healthy and get everything together.”

Besides Copper, Griner and Taurasi heading to the Olympics in France with Team USA and Rebecca Allen representing Team Australia, the rest of the Mercury will take a break, come back to practice and work on their craft. Phoenix does not play again until August 15 in Copper’s first game back in Chicago since being traded by the Sky in the offseason.

Time will tell if the Mercury does become a serious contender like Robinson believes they can be, but returning to full health is the No. 1 priority and this break came at the perfect time for Phoenix to do so.