EAGER FOR ACTION
Mercury rookies from last year anxious to show improvement
Sophie Cunningham is among players
stuck on the sidelines for the Phoenix Mercury,
who originally would have started their home season
Sunday.
The Phoenix Mercury season was scheduled to begin with a home game Sunday. Instead, the WNBA is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic with no certainty about even when training camps will open. Imagine if you can a Phoenix Mercury season that begins with four rookies on the roster, three of whom make it through to the end. OK, 2019 is not that hard to recall, but given what’s happened since, not only in the world but on the Mercury, it seems unimaginable. By acquiring six WNBA veterans, the Mercury could go into this season with no rookies. When training camp eventually opens (presuming it does amidst the coronavirus pandemic), the Mercury will be without a first-round draftee, and second- and third-round picks Te’a Cooper and Stella Johnson could have limited time to make an impression.
Free agents Olivia Epoupa and Sara Blicavs are in a slightly better position for having professional experience, but neither have played yet in the WNBA. And because of salary cap limitations, the Mercury will start with just 11 players (out of a possible 12) on their roster.
Newly acquired vets Kia Vaughn, Nia Coffey and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough are on non-guaranteed contracts but likely to stick with the five players on guaranteed deals. That leaves three available roster spots, all of which could be filled by the secondyear players -- provided they can build off, or in one case forget, 2019.
Rookie haul in 2019
Because of two trades, the Mercury wound up with three of the first 13 picks in the 2019 WNBA draft.
They chose forwards Alanna Smith and Brianna Turner in the first round (No. 8 and 11) and guard Sophie Cunningham with the first pick in the second (No. 13).
The best of the trio, at least in year one, was the 6-foot-3 Turner, who went from not playing much in the first half of the season to making the WNBA All-Rookie team, the first Phoenix player to do so since Brittney Griner in 2013. She averaged 6.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in August and September (15 games) with some spectacular spikes (14 rebounds in one game, six blocks in another, both tying Griner's franchise rookie records).
“I was making sure in practices I was still going hard so when my name was called I was ready for my opportunity,” Turner said. “I made sure not to get down on myself. Obviously we had a really experienced team last year and I was playing around a lot of great players so I just kind of waited for my opportunity.”
Turner finished with 12 starts, seven more than Cunningham, whose playing time was boosted because of Diana Taurasi’s near season-long injury absence. Cunningham had a 19point game against Indiana in late June and led WNBA rookies in freethrow shooting percentage (88.2).
“It’s such a learning season,” Cunningham said. “You’re trying to learn a new system, to learn your role and trying to learn how your teammates play. It is a lot of up and down so you just try to stay consistent right in the middle. I’ve been through it, I know what to expect now.”
Smith played the least of the 2019 rookies (18 games) due to an ankle injury but was a top-10 draft pick for a reason. She’s 6-4 and averaged 19.4 points and 8.6 rebounds as senior at Stanford.
“I’m excited to see what she can bring to us because we never really got to see the true Alanna Smith,” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said. “It’ll be like having her rookie year all over again for us. She’s a really good shooter. She’s a stretch 4, that’s how we always envisioned her.”
“I’m excited to see what she can bring to us because we never really got to see the true Alanna Smith. It’ll be like having her rookie year all over again for us. She’s a really good shooter. She’s a stretch 4, that’s how we always envisioned her.”
Australian ties in off season
The offseason bridge between WNBA seasons 1-2 goes through Australia for all three women.
Turner and Cunningham played in the Australian WNBL through February. Smith is Australian and returned there in February to rehab injuries suffered while she was playing in South Korea.
Once again, Turner was the leader among the three, finishing as WNBL Most Valuable Player runner-up for the Adelaide Lightning. She averaged 16.8 points and 10.7 rebounds and led the league in blocks (2.4 per game).
“It was really high level competition,” Turner said. “The league treated the player fairly well. I liked Adelaide. I had a bigger role than I had in Phoenix, and I was excited for the challenge. It was overall a positive experience.”
Cunningham had a good season, too, averaging 11.6 points, 3.6 boards and 2.3 assists for the Melbourne Boomers. She scored a team-high 14 in the third game of a best-of-3 WNBL semifinal series loss to the eventual champion UC Capitals.
“It was such a great experience,” she said. “The people there are so friendly and down to earth. It’s really good vibe. Basketball-wise, it helped my fundamentals. I developed a jump shot and have done a lot of footwork with that. I got a lot better and got my confidence back up. I’m looking forward to getting out on the court and showing what I learned over there.”
Smith started fast coming off right ankle surgery (Aug. 23) with a 28point, 11-rebound performance Dec. 12 for the Shinhan S-Birds.
She had two more double-doubles and played in 12 games overall. She went to France with the Australian national team in early February for an Olympic qualifying tournament but didn’t play due to a stress reaction in her leg and foot issues.
So she returned to Melbourne to get healthy again while living at home with her parents and sister.
“You can never predict what happens in sports and unfortunately injuries are a large part of it,” she said. “You just have to work through what’s dealt to you. Luckily for me, it’s not a serious injury and I’m able to work my way back to getting playing fit and game ready. I’m at the tail end of the rehabbing process and very confident in my ability to play” when the WNBA season begins.
But so are contenders for their jobs too. Like Epoupa, a French point guard who led the WNBL in steals and was second in assists for the champion Capitals. And 6-2 Blicavs, who averaged 13.4 points and 7 rebounds for the WNBL runner-up Southside Flyers.
Waiting on Year 2
Turner is waiting out the pandemic in Texas, alternating between Houston and her family’s country home outside of Austin. She’s put together some rocking chairs for her mother, tried to help with gardening and tested out three types of enchiladas on her father.
No one doubts that Turner is part of the Mercury’s future. The immediate question is whether she’s ready to be a full-time starter at power forward ahead of 6-2 Jessica Breland, an eight-year WNBA veteran with more than 1,000 career points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocks.
“I’m ready to accept whatever role I’m given,” Turner said. “I think she (Breland) is a good stretch 4, can knock down the three, really athletic and it seems like she has a high basketball IQ.”
For Smith and Cunningham, training camp will be more uncertain.
It’s hard to see the Mercury giving up on Smith until they can see what she does when fully healthy and find out if she’s able to play the small forward position previously occupied by DeWanna Bonner.
“There is a big opening at the 3,” Smith said. “I’m capable of playing the 3. It’s just about what Sandy (Brondello) and Jim (Pitman) need me to do. I’m happy to fill the role.”
That would mean competing against Nia Coffey, Cunningham and perhaps even Taurasi if coach Brondello now views the wing as an option for the WNBA career scoring leader.
Smith is eager to reward management’s patience with her injuries. “As much as it’s frustrating for me not being able to play, it must be frustrating for them,” she said. “But they’re really invested in me and I’m really invested in Phoenix as an organization. I think we’re really on the same page, and I appreciate the confidence they put in me.”
Cunningham brought the competitiveness and spirit that made her a college star at Missouri and won’t easily be moved out even with the back court additions of Skylar Diggins-Smith, Bria Hartley, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Coffey.
She returned from Australia on March 5, two days before pandemic travel shutdown, and since has been at her family’s farm in Missouri, where among other things she rocked the world of a 13-year-old fan on her birthday by promising tickets to a Mercury game this summer.
But first there’s the hard work making sure she can hold onto a job.
“I’m going to have to fight for that position, but I’m confident in my abilities and what I bring to the court,” Cunningham said.
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