The Connecticut Sun knew that Marina Mabrey fit their roster on paper. When they acquired the guard in a trade with the Chicago Sky back in July, they were excited to land an offensive threat who could facilitate, space the floor and provide a much-needed dose of three-point shooting.
But what they could not know was how well she would fit their roster in real life. Mabrey is a fiery, passionate spark plug with a healthy appreciation for trash talk, and she was joining a group that already had several players who met that description. (Including some whom Mabrey had a bit of history with.) There was also a real chance the sharpshooter would need to come off the bench on her new team.
“Any time a trade is made, you wonder how it's going to fit personnel-wise, personality-wise,” says Sun general manager Darius Taylor.
But adding fire to more fire has worked for the Sun. Now in the WNBA semifinals, Connecticut received a huge boost from Mabrey, whose offensive skill set has proved instrumental. She has averaged 19.8 points and 3.5 assists per game in the postseason: No one on the team has posted a higher usage rate in the playoffs. After coming off the bench down the stretch in the regular season, Mabrey has lately stepped into a starting role following an ankle injury to Sun point guard Tyasha Harris. She has thrived.
Currently tied at 1–1 in a best-of-five series against the Minnesota Lynx, the Sun have found their midseason acquisition to be a perfect fit.
“She’s flourished,” Taylor says. “She came in and we tried some different lineups, and she accepted whatever role the coaches gave her… Her grittiness, her toughness, she fits our model.”
It’s somewhat rare to see big midseason trades in the WNBA. In a small league with a hard salary cap and limited roster spots—where major player movement was constrained even in free agency until the last few years—there is little established tradition of major players moving in-season. “A lot of times, we have this trade deadline, and nothing ever really happens,” Taylor says. But this one seemed like a no-brainer for the second-year executive. Mabrey had requested an opportunity to move on from Chicago, which had gone through a regime change since she joined the team last year, and Connecticut was in serious need of a quality shooter. The Sun were among the best teams in the WNBA, but that standing relied heavily on their defensive identity, and they knew they had to bolster their offense for a real chance at a long-awaited championship.
And so this felt like a deal they had to make. The Sun landed Mabrey in exchange for guards Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson. (Connecticut also included its 2025 first-round pick and the ability to swap picks in ’26; Chicago sent a ’25 second-round pick.) ESPN declared Mabrey the biggest WNBA name to be traded midseason in at least eight years. The three-player deal came as something of a surprise to the roster, which traditionally grows tight knit while playing in the not-quite-cosmopolitan town of Uncasville, Conn. But the shock of losing some beloved teammates quickly gave way to excitement.
“We’re a really close group, because we don't have anything to do around here but to be close and play basketball,” says Sun forward DeWanna Bonner. “So it was kind of bittersweet… But it was also, Hell yeah, let’s go. She’s one of the great scorers in this league. And we needed that.”
They did. Connecticut had little in the way of three-point threats: The team ranked second to last in the league this year for shots taken from beyond the arc. That hugely improved with the addition of Mabrey. Her 2.5 threes per game put her in the top 10 in the WNBA. (She’s long been known as a player who can shoot her team both in and out of a game.) That presence has been enough to meaningfully change how opposing defenses scheme for the Sun.
“Someone to be a tough shot maker, to stretch the floor for us, to be somebody we can give the ball to at the end of the shot clock,” says Connecticut coach Stephanie White. “It's something that we were missing.”
It was difficult to make the initial call to use Mabrey off the bench. “No competitor wants that, right?” White says. “But to embrace this role coming in two-thirds of the way through the season and be a go-to… She’s got a toughness about her.” Mabrey adjusted her game accordingly. She ultimately scored more in limited minutes in Connecticut than she did while starting in Chicago. The veterans on this roster told her they wanted to see her become more efficient. And so she simply did. Weeks later, when the opportunity for a starting role arose in the playoffs, she was ready.
“When you step onto a team that's been really close to a championship a few times, there's a level of discipline and mental lock-in,” says 28-year-old Mabrey. “It wasn’t easy at all, and it’s still not easy, I still have to change my mindset… I’ve learned a lot.”
That has meant stepping up her coverage. “We were on her to play hard on defense,” said Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas. “And then she goes out there and does it.” It has meant being sure not to get in the way of the two-man game Thomas has established over the years with Bonner. It has meant learning that she found it deeply annoying to be described as a role player while she was coming off the bench. (“That’s not true at all,” says Mabrey, rolling her eyes a bit. “My teammates do a really good job of keeping the floor balanced, and everybody having a balanced attack, so I think at times it can seem like I'm kind of taking a backseat. But no.”) And it has meant learning that she has found her way to a roster that could be ideally suited for her.
Mabrey brought to the Sun a shooting ability they were missing—and an attitude they already had.
“There's a competitive mentality, there's a take-no-prisoners kind of mindset, a no-fear mindset,” White says. “And Marina certainly has that.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Marina Mabrey Has Been the Spark Plug the Sun Needed.
