The Connecticut Sun knew that Marina Mabrey fit their roster on paper. When they acquired the guard in a trade with the Chicago Sky In July, they were excited to land an offensive threat who could facilitate, open up space and provide a much-needed dose of three-point shooting.

But what they couldn’t know was how well she would fit into their roster in real life. Mabrey is a fiery, passionate spark plug with a healthy appreciation for bullshit, and she joined a group that already had several players who fit that description. (Including some with whom Mabrey had a bit of history.) There was also a real chance that the sharpshooter would have to come off the bench in her new team.

“Every time a transaction is made, you wonder how it will fit in terms of personnel and personality,” said Darius Taylor, Sun’s chief executive.

But adding fire to more fire has worked for the sun. Now in the WNBA semifinals, Connecticut got a huge boost from Mabrey, whose offensive skills have played a big role. 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 in the regular season, Mabrey recently stepped into a starting role following an ankle injury to Sun point guard Tyasha Harris. She has blossomed.

Currently sitting at 1-1 in a best-of-five series against the Minnesota Lynx, the Sun have found their midseason signing to be a perfect match.

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

It’s somewhat rare to see major midseason trades in the WNBA. In a small league with a hard salary cap and limited roster spots — where big-name player movement has been limited even in free agency until the last few years — there is little established tradition of big-name players moving during the season. “A lot of times we have a trade deadline and nothing ever really happens,” Taylor says. But this seemed like a no-brainer for the second-year director. Mabrey had asked for an opportunity to move from Chicago, which had undergone a regime change since she joined the team last year, and Connecticut was in dire need of a quality shooter. The Sun were among the best teams in the WNBA, but that position depended heavily on their defensive identity, and they knew they had to strengthen their offense to have a real shot 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 added its 2025 first-round pick and the ability to trade picks in ’26; Chicago sent a second-round pick in ’25.) ESPN named Mabrey the biggest WNBA name signed midseason traded. at least eight years. The three-player deal came as a surprise to the roster, which traditionally becomes tight-knit while playing in the not-quite-cosmopolitan city of Uncasville, Conn. But the shock of losing several beloved teammates quickly gave way to excitement.

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

They did. Connecticut had little to do with three-point threats: the team ranked second in the league this year in shooting from beyond the arc. That improved enormously with the addition of Mabrey. Her 2.5 threes per game put her in the top 10 in the WNBA. (She has long been known as a player who can get her team in and out of a game.) That presence has been enough to meaningfully change the way opponents defend the Sun.

“Someone who can be a tough shot maker, who can stretch the floor for us, someone we can give the ball to at the end of the shot clock,” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said. “It’s something we missed.”

It was difficult to make the initial decision to use Mabrey off the bench. “No competitor wants that, right?” says White. “But to embrace this role, which emerges two-thirds of the way through the season, and be a go-to… There’s something badass about her.” Mabrey adjusted her game accordingly. She ended up scoring more in limited minutes in Connecticut than when she started in Chicago. The veterans on this roster told her they wanted to see her become more efficient. And so she just did that. Weeks later, when the opportunity for a starting role in the play-offs arose, she was ready.

“When you go into a team that has been very close to a championship a few times, there is a certain amount of discipline and mental lock-in,” says the 28-year-old Mabrey. “It wasn’t easy at all, and it still isn’t easy. I still have to change my way of thinking… I have learned a lot.”

That meant her coverage had to be expanded. “We wanted her to play hard on defense,” Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas said. “And then she goes out and does it.” It meant making sure we didn’t get in the way of the two-man game that Thomas has built with Bonner over the years. It meant learning that she really resented being described as a role player while coming off the bench. (“That’s not true at all,” Mabrey says, rolling her eyes a little. “My teammates do a really good job of balancing the floor, and everyone has a balanced attack, so I think sometimes it’s may seem like I’m taking a bit of a backseat, but no.’) And it meant learning that she had found her way to a selection that could be ideally suited to her.

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

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