The Connecticut Sun knew that Marina Mabrey fit their roster on paper. If you acquired the guard in a trade with the Chicago Sky Back in July, they were looking forward to landing an offensive threat who could space the floor, create space and provide a much-needed dose of three-point shooting.

What they couldn’t know, however, was how well she would fit into their squad in real life. Mabrey is a fiery, passionate spark plug with a healthy sense of trash talk, and she joined a group that already had several players who fit that description. (Including some with whom Mabrey had some history.) There was also a real chance the sniper would have to come off the bench in her new team.

“Every time a trade is made, you ask yourself how it will fit in terms of personnel and personality,” says Sun CEO Darius Taylor.

But adding fire to more fire worked for the sun. Now in the WNBA semifinals, Connecticut received a huge boost from Mabrey, whose offensive skills have proven crucial. She 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 during the regular season, Mabrey recently stepped into the starting lineup following an ankle injury to Sun point guard Tyasha Harris. She has developed well.

Currently tied 1-1 in a best-of-five series with the Minnesota Lynx, the Suns have found their midseason acquisition to be a perfect fit.

“She’s thriving,” Taylor says. “She came in and we tried different lineups and she accepted whatever role the coaches gave her… Her grit, her toughness, she fits our model.”

It’s rare for major midseason trades to take place in the WNBA. In a minor league with a strict salary cap and limited roster spots — where the movement of big players was restricted even in free agency until recent years — there is little established tradition of big players moving in-season. “A lot of times we have this trade deadline and nothing ever really happens,” Taylor said. But this seemed like a given for the second-year executive. Mabrey had asked for a chance to leave Chicago, which had undergone a regime change since she joined the team last year, and Connecticut desperately needed a good shooter. The Sun were one of the best teams in the WNBA, but their reputation depended heavily on their defensive identity, and they knew they had to strengthen their offense to have a real chance at a long-awaited championship.

And so it felt like a deal they had to make. The Sun acquired Mabrey in exchange for guards Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson. (Connecticut also included its 2025 first-round pick and the possibility of trading picks in 2026; Chicago sent a 2025 second-round pick.) ESPN declared Mabrey the biggest WNBA name traded midseason at least eight years. The three-player deal came as a bit of a surprise for the squad, which has traditionally worked increasingly closely together in the not exactly cosmopolitan town of Uncasville, Connecticut. But the shock of losing some beloved teammates quickly gave way to excitement.

“We’re a very close group because we don’t have anything to do here other than be close to each other and play basketball,” Sun forward DeWanna Bonner said. “So it was kind of bittersweet… But it was also like, Hell yeah, let’s go. She is one of the best scorers in this league. And we needed that.”

That’s what they did. Three-point threats were few and far between in Connecticut: The team ranked second-to-last in the league in long-range shots that year. That has improved tremendously with the addition of Mabrey. Her 2.5 three-pointers per game placed her in the top 10 in the WNBA. (She has long been known as a player who can bombard her team both inside and outside of a game.) That presence was enough to significantly change the way opposing defenses function for the Sun.

“Someone who is a hard thrower who will stretch the field for us, someone who we can give the ball to at the end of the shot clock,” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said. “It’s something we’ve been missing.”

Making the initial decision to use Mabrey off the bench was difficult. “No competitor wants that, right?” says Weiss. “But taking on that role for two-thirds of the season and being a go-to guy… there’s a certain toughness to her.” Mabrey adjusted her game accordingly. She ended up scoring more goals in just a few minutes in Connecticut than she did when she started in Chicago. The veterans on that roster told her they wanted her to be more efficient. And so she just did it. Weeks later when the opportunity arose A starting role came up in the playoffs, she was ready.

“When you come into a team that has been very close to the championship a few times, there is a certain level of discipline and mental commitment,” says the 28-year-old Mabrey. “It wasn’t easy at all and it’s still not easy, I still need to change my attitude… I learned a lot.”

That meant she had to expand her reporting. “We expected her to play hard on defense,” Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas said. “And then she goes out there and does it.” It meant that we couldn’t get in the way of the two-man game that Thomas had established with Bonner over the years. She learned that it was deeply annoying for her to be described as a role player when she came off the bench. (“That’s not true at all,” Mabrey says, rolling his eyes a little. “My teammates do a really good job of balancing the field and everyone has a balanced attack, so I think sometimes it seems like whether I “I’m kind of fading into the background.”) And it meant learning that she had found her way to a squad that could be an ideal fit for her.

Mabrey brought the Sun a shooting ability they lacked — and an attitude they already had.

“There’s a competitive mentality, there’s a take-no-prisoners attitude, a no-fear attitude,” White says. “And Marina definitely has that.”