04/14/2024

PHOENIX-- The Phoenix Mercury have actually gotten All-Star and WNBA Champion wing Kahleah Copper and onward Morgan Bertsch from the Chicago Sky in exchange for forwards Brianna Turner and Michaela Onyenwere, together with the Mercury's first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, the team revealed today. As part of the offer, Chicago will certainly receive its 2025 second-round choice back from Phoenix metro and the rights to a 2026 second-round pick swap with Phoenix. " The possibility to include a player of Kahleah's quality in the prime of her profession is unusual," said Mercury basic manager Nick U'Ren. "She is among the most dynamic and sports gamers in our league, with a true propensity for scoring the ball. She is additionally a strong rival, shown champion and the utmost two-way gamer, who can disrupt the video game on the protective end with her length and task. Morgan is a sharpshooter and savvy defender-- we are thrilled for the energy and scoring strike she can provide off the 29-year-old Copper is a three-time All-Star coming off the very best statistical period of her profession in 2023 when she balanced a career-high 18. 7 points, 4. 4 rebounds and 2. 0 helps. The 6-1 wing fired a career-best 40. 4% from three-point range and made a career-best 69 three-point basket in 2022. An elite scorer in all levels, Copper signed up with Breanna Stewart, Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally as the only four gamers in the top-15 in both two and three-point basket made in 2023. A tried and tested champion, Copper led the Sky to its very first WNBA title in franchise history in 2021 and was called Finals MVP after averaging 17. 0 points, 5. 5 rebounds, 1. 3 aids and 1. 3 takes overhead's four-game loss of the Mercury. With Chicago, she led the Sky to five-straight playoff selected 7th total in the 2016 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics, Copper has actually spent the last seven periods with the Sky, leading the group in racking up the last three. The Philadelphia indigenous and Rutgers product won a gold medal with U. S. A. Basketball at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and was just named to the group's 12-person lineup, alongside Mercury guard Diana Taurasi, for the 2024 FIBA Female's Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will happen in Belgium from February 8-11. Bertsch, a 6-4 forward, averaged 4. 4 factors and 1. 7 rebounds, while shooting 45. 6% from the area and 44. 4% from three-point range in 28 video games with Chicago last period https://www.mercuryteamstore.com. Originally selected 29th general in the 2019 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings, Bertsch played four years at UC Davis, where she averaged 18. 3 factors and 5. 2 rebounds and ended up as the Aggies' all-time leading scorer.