{"id":161902,"date":"2025-08-20T19:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161902\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T19:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T19:48:11","slug":"mercury-fans-just-got-what-they-dont-want-to-hear-from-head-coach-nate-tibbetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161902\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury fans just got what they don’t want to hear from head coach Nate Tibbetts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Mercury are going to be either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the WNBA playoffs this year, depending on whether or not the Aces can keep up this current run<\/a>. Sure, there are scenarios where Phoenix gets hot and catches the Atlanta Dream or where things fall apart and they wind up battling the Fever to potentially avoid dropping to the No. 6 seed. Overall, though, it feels like the team is going to wind up about where they are right now.<\/p>\n

Which means it’s probably time to start thinking about the playoffs, right? And specifically, it’s time to think about managing the wear and tear on the team as they approach the postseason.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t seem to be the plan, though, according to head coach Nate Tibbetts. Asked on Tuesday by Clutch Point’s Hayden Cilley how he would manage fatigue going forward, Tibbetts said, \u201cEveryone\u2019s tired this time of year. That\u2019s part of it \u2026 we\u2019re professional athletes. This is part of the grind.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while true, that statement feels off when discussing this Mercury team, because the depth in Phoenix should actually allow the team to give its stars a little more rest.<\/p>\n

The Mercury need to make some lineup adjustments <\/p>\n

Hey, look: If Tibbetts wants to play his stars heavy minutes in the playoffs, great! That’s what the playoffs are for. You put your best players out there and you try to win playoff games.<\/p>\n

But you also want to give yourself the best chance once you’re there, and when Tibbetts is asked about rotation changes and says “this is what I\u2019m going with,”<\/a> you suddenly have a bit of an issue.<\/p>\n

Phoenix was a big surprise early in the year because the team was winning with multiple undrafted rookies in the lineup, but those players have since been relegated to bit roles. Lexi Held, who looked like a potential breakout star early in the year, played just five minutes in the team’s last game, while the trio of Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally all played 30-plus minutes and DeWanna Bonner played 27 off the bench.<\/p>\n

The playoffs and the regular season are very different things. Tibbetts is basically running a playoff rotation right now instead of letting his young players take pressure off his stars. That’d be fine if this were the playoffs. But it’s not! And when all three of your stars have missed time this year with injury, the focus should be on making sure they’re all good to go for the postseason.<\/p>\n

I’d understand if the Mercury lacked bench depth, but players like Held, Monique Akoa Makani and Kathryn Westbeld have played key roles this year! Akoa Makani has started 30 games! Westbeld held down the center spot really well early in the year! Held had a six-game stretch where she averaged 13.7 points per game! Get them some more run as the regular season winds down. Take advantage of your depth so you’re better equipped to battle for a title come playoff time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury are going to be either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-161902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115062827234009512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}