The Phoenix Mercury have successfully overhauled their roster, if their 2025 record is any indication. Never mind that they made it to the playoffs last year; the Mercury have managed to turn things around by posting a winning record this season after three consecutive sub-.500 campaigns from 2022 to 2024. And this turnaround of theirs has come in large part from the addition of Alyssa Thomas, the perennial All-Star whom the Mercury traded for back in February.
Thomas may already be 33 years of age, but she is aging like fine wine — with 2025 being a career-best year for her in many respects. She put up yet another brilliant effort on Thursday in a 75-69 win for the Mercury over the Washington Mystics, tallying 12 points, nine rebounds, and 11 assists. On the year, she is averaging 15.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 9.2 assists on a career-best true shooting of 57.7 percent.
As pointed out by Polymarket Hoops on X (formerly Twitter), Thomas became just the second player in WNBA history to tally over 330 assists in a single season — joining Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark in that very exclusive club.
It's in the playmaking department where Thomas has truly blossomed into a superstar. She is leading the league in assists per game by nearly three dimes per contest over the second-placed player (Courtney Williams), and she is setting records in the assists department — a bonkers feat for a 6'2″ player who isn't listed as a point guard.
Some would point out the fact that the WNBA regular-season schedule has expanded to 44 games, up from 40 games in 2023 and 2024 and 34 games from 2003 to 2019. (WNBA scheduling was odd from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — 22 games in 2020, 32 games in 2021, and 36 games in 2022.) This has given players more games to add to their season-total, paving the way for historic numbers.
Nonetheless, this should not take away from the Mercury star's feat in the slightest.
Mercury's Alyssa Thomas is about to be the WNBA's assist queen
The games argument wouldn't work at all against Thomas, seeing as her season average of 9.2 assists per contest is the second-highest tally over a single season, trailing only the 9.9 assists per game that Courtney Vandersloot had in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
The Mercury star is on pace to set the record for most assists ever in a single season; Clark set the record in 2024 with 337, and with three games left in Phoenix's 2025 season, Thomas is not even going to have to sweat to break that record.
