PHOENIX– The 2025 WNBA season is sealed… or is it? Well, that's not what the Phoenix Mercury seem to believe, and for good reason.

Phoenix and the 12 other teams are eyeing the upcoming collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations. Those discussions can influence the salary cap, free agents, and a multitude of other things.

Three of the team's top players, Kahleah Copper, Alyssa Thomas, and Satou Sabally, will be unrestricted free agents. Every Mercury player other than Kalani Brown could hit the open market.

This can create the biggest offseason the WNBA has ever had. And it's something that U'Ren has known about for a good while.

“I think it's a huge opportunity,” U'Ren said during Mercury exit interviews on Saturday. “It's also something we've known was coming for a while, so it wasn't sprung on us.

“We've known this moment was coming, but I think it's a great opportunity to capitalize on it. It's something we've honestly had our eye on since I took the job.”

Building for sustained success is usually a process, but something that U'Ren and the entire front office mastered. Only two Mercury players returned to the 2025 group (Copper and Natasha Mack).

That along raised major concerns, but the proof was in the pudding. Both Sabally and Thomas made immediate contributions, with the latter being third in the MVP race. The Mercury making the 2025 WNBA Finals alone felt like a win.

Who else was impressed with Mercury's 2025 season?

Phoenix Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts talks to his team as they practice at Mountain America Performance Center before their WNBA Finals series against the Las Vegas Aces on Oct. 1, 2025, in Phoenix.
© Joseph Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Head coach Nate Tibbetts showed his legitimate uncertainty at the beginning of the season. Losing the only two returners to start the year was a major roadblock, until it wasn't.

The team had a hold of the Western Conference, and dismissed the people who quickly wrote them off. Once the playoffs hit, everything was reset.

Plenty thought that Phoenix had a fun season, but it would soon be over. After all, they were matched up with the 2024 WNBA champions in the New York Liberty.

They knocked them off in three games, and then faced the runner-ups, the Minnesota Lynx. Eventually, it became a 3-1 series victory and they punched their ticket to the Finals.

At that point, the cinderella story came to a screeching halt at the hands of the Las Vegas Aces. A main difference would be the cores of both teams.

Las Vegas has kept their main core for now three WNBA championships. This was the Mercury's Big 3's first season together, and that was a major discrepancy that showed big time.

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Either way, it had Tibbetts continually believing in his team, even so much so as getting ejected in Game 4 at the defense of his players. During his portion of exit interviews with the media, he reflected on how quickly everyone came together, despite not playing together.

“Maybe less than 6 months, right? Pretty impressive that the group that Nick (U'Ren) in the front office put together. I think it speaks to the talent and also the people. Part of the thing we talked about last night and part of the reason we're disappointed, is that we're not gonna get to see each other every day.

“We've got a great group of people in this building. We were all building for the same thing. And we didn't meet that expectation, and that's a little bit disappointing. But yeah, it's been a hell of a year.

“Super proud of what we got done, and we feel like we've kind of set the tone for the future.”

Nick U'Ren doesn't have an answer for Mercury offseason

As mentioned in part of the general manager's earlier answer, the CBA negotiations will be what allows Phoenix to decide what to do. One thing is for certain, they would want to run it back.

Even if there's no resolution, the team will need to establish who they want to keep before the WNBA expansion draft. The club is able to protect upwards of six players.

With the conglomerate of offseason happenings, it'll keep U'Ren busy.

“The expansion teams add another element of uncertainty to the offseason. CBA, two new teams, more roster spots available league-wide,” U'Ren said.

“I've said this before in a few interviews. I'm no sports historian, but I'm not sure any league has gone through what this league's about to go through, and the two expansion teams just kind of add to that. But what an exciting time to be able to grow like that.”

For every team, the offseason presents questions that won't have answers for quite some time. The Mercury might just have theirs when it comes to running it back, regardless of how the CBA negotiations go.