After going 9-31 last season, the Phoenix Mercury revamped the bulk of their roster to compete once again in the 2024 season. Although the season is still young, a new and competitive culture is being set into place with head coach Nate Tibbetts at the helm.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Tibbetts knows the importance of playing competitive basketball on both ends of the floor, and is working to instill that mindset into his team.
“The first two, three days of training camp, we did not run offense,” said veteran guard Natasha Cloud. “We focused on defense. Understanding that we can have all the scorers in the world, but if we’re not getting stops on the other end of the court, that [stuff] doesn’t matter. So we’ve all bought into that, we’ve all bought into Nate, and I don’t think he gets [talked about enough] for creating and starting a standard [for] this culture that we were easily able to just sit into.”
Tibbetts understands that building discipline defensively will help carry the Mercury on that side of the ball, especially without Brittney Griner. A combination of discipline and competitiveness could help Phoenix overachieve, and Tibbetts highlights Cloud’s competitive nature.
"We've got competitive players…And to me, we've got one of the most competitive ones in our league, in [Natasha] Cloud."
Nate Tibbetts speaks on the competitiveness of veteran guard Natasha Cloud, as well as the rest of the team.#ValleyTogether #WNBA pic.twitter.com/KGM6qg9POM
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) May 22, 2024
“Well, it makes it easier when you’ve got competitive players,” said Tibbetts ahead of Phoenix’s third game of the season against Las Vegas. “We’ve got competitive players…And to me, we’ve got one of the most competitive ones in our league, in [Natasha] Cloud. Her versatility and the belief of the others, knowing that we’re going to have help is something we’ve spent a lot of time in training camp and even these practices. They’re probably getting tired of doing the shell drill, but it’s like shooting to me. You need to do it over and over and over again, and it’s got to be at a good pace, and they’ve bought into it.”
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Justin LaCertosa covers Phoenix Sports News for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @LaCertosaSports
