Photo by Kate Frese/NBAE via Getty Images
Sophie Cunningham has been one of the league’s most efficient bench players and a key leader on the Phoenix Mercury.
The Phoenix Mercury are in the midst of an underwhelming season, and Sophie Cunningham — one of the longest-tenured players on the roster — hasn’t been shy about calling the team out.
“We need to learn how to be great teammates,” Cunningham said after the team lost to the Storm, their fifth loss in six games. “At the end of the day, we get to play basketball for a living, so that’s a blessing. Maybe, changing our perspectives to start to be a little more grateful would be a good start.”
Cunningham was drafted to the Mercury in 2019, and has been with the franchise for the entirety of her WNBA career. For the past two seasons, that’s been in a starting role. Last season, she averaged 11.3 points per game in 29 minutes.
But this year, she’s frequently done so off the bench, averaging 8 points in 27.7 minutes. Her shooting percentage is slightly up from last season to this season (from 41.3% to 42.1%), as is her three-point percentage (from 33.7% to 36.8%). When she checks in, her mindset is different every game, depending on what she saw from the sidelines in the opening minutes.
“For me, it’s not really about points, it’s just kind of really doing whatever the team needs in that particular game,” Cunningham said. “And sometimes that is points, sometimes it’s rebounds, it’s assists, it’s playing good defense. I’m just kind of the X Factor, and I just kind of do whatever they need.”
In turn, Cunningham is now in the running for Sixth Player of the Year. Given the talent and collective accolades on the roster – Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Kahleah Copper, to just name a few — coming off the bench can sometimes actually make life easier.
“Sometimes it’s kind of nice coming off the bench, just because you can see the flow of the game,” Cunningham said. “We have four Olympians on our team, and so when they’re all out on the court, they’re trying to find their rhythm pretty early in the game. They’re trying to get theirs. So, sometimes it’s kind of nice, because then you get to go in and kind of be that second punch that the team needs – a little fiery energy. Then there’s more shots for me to be more aggressive on the offensive end.”
Photo by Kate Frese/NBAE via Getty Images
Cunningham’s Sixth Player of the Year campaign will be hindered by the fact her team has underachieved this season. They currently sit in the 7th seed, and have looked especially disjointed since the Olympic break.
But, Cunningham deserves to be in the conversation for Sixth Player of the Year because she’s been one of the league most prolific and efficient scorers off the bench. Of players who have come off the bench at least 15 times this season, Cunningham has averaged the second-most points behind Hayes, 8.4 per game. Her shooting splits off the bench are also phenomenal; in 19 bench outings, she’s shot 49% from the field, 43.8% from three, and 87.2% from the line.
But even above the on-court stats, Cunningham told SB Nation that her biggest contribution this season has been her leadership.
“It’s meeting people where they’re at,” she said. “It’s being the glue of the team and making sure that all these personalities, and sometimes egos, are all coming together, and trying to create a great culture and a great environment for people to thrive and be successful. And so for me, it’s pretty much off court stuff. It’s about building chemistry. It’s about building rhythm. And then when you have that, and you have that type of team, naturally things go pretty well for those teams on the corner as well.”
“So that’s kind of where my focus is at. I think we have a lot of great players on our team who – they’re Olympians. They’ve won championships in the W, and so for me, it’s doing the little things and making sure that we’re all on the same page.”
Over the weekend, Cunningham signed a one-year extension with the Mercury, the organization with which she’s spent her entire professional career.
“We’re creating a really good culture, and it’s going to be a successful, winning culture,” Cunningham said. “We’re going to get a championship back here in Phoenix in a couple years, I feel. For me, it’s about that. Our coaches have been absolutely phenomenal. The organization as a whole, especially our owner and our CEO and our GM, they’ve just treated us like elite level athletes — and I know that’s not necessarily the case on other teams.”
In the meantime, she hasn’t spent much time thinking about whether she might earn the Sixth Player of the Year award, but she recognizes it’d be a great honor.
“I know there’s been conversations around it. I think it’d be awesome,” she said. “It’s just a testament to my teammates, the work I’ve put in. But, at the end of the day, awards and that type of stuff doesn’t identify me. It’s not where I put my hope and my success, if I’m a winner or loser, if I get these awards or not.”
Whether or not receives the accolade, Cunningham will continue leaning into the things that have made her successful in the WNBA, to date — starter or not.
“At the end of the day, my thing is outworking people, it’s making sure that I’m the hardest worker on the floor, that I have the most energy, I’m being a dawg for my team,” Cunningham said. “And I think when I do that type of thing, then the game naturally just comes.”
Author’s note: This article is part of a series diving into the candidates for WNBA Sixth Player of the Year. Similar stories have been written about Tiffany Hayes of the Las Vegas Aces and Leonie Fiebich of the New York Liberty.
