Mercury start play today
Life without DeWanna Bonner starts for Phoenix Mercury on Saturday
The Phoenix Mercury play the Los Angeles Sparks at noon today as the delayed, shortened WNBA season gets underway.
With DeWanna Bonner, the Phoenix Mercury made the WNBA playoffs nine times, reaching the final four all but once and winning two championships.
Her franchise legacy is second only to Diana Taurasi. Life without Bonner begins for real Saturday.
In two of the WNBA major offseason sign-and-trade deals, the Mercury exchaged Bonner, a 6-4 forward, for Skylar Diggins-Smith, a 5-9 point guard, to reformulate their Big Three with league career scoring leader Taurasi and 6-9 league MVP candidate Brittney Griner.
It’s not a simple 1-for-1 correlation, of course, as to whether the Mercury will be improved from 2019 — a 15-19 injury-plagued season — or achieve the long-term success they had with Bonner. But in a pandemic shortened 22-game regular season, the fortunes of the Mercury compared to the Connecticut Sun, now Bonner’s home, will be a consistent storyline.
Bonner was “incredibly versatile and could do a lot of different things,” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said. “You don’t just replace that with one person. It does allow opportunities for a lot of different people to grow.”
Since half of the Mercury’s 10-player roster is new and three of the returners are only in their second WNBA season, growth and chemistry are the operative words for a season that on average requires a game every other day, all played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
The Mercury were to have played this season at Veterans Memorial Coliseum due to renovations at Talking Stick Resort Arena but now because of coronavirus will experience a different sort of madhouse with 12 teams in the same ideally protective bubble for several months.
Younger, more athletic team
Pitman and Mercury coach Sandy Brondello believe adding five WNBA veterans — a sixth, forward Jessica Breland, is out for the season with a medical exemption — will make the team younger, more athletic and better on defense and rebounding.
Eight of the 10 players are under 30 although Diggins-Smith hits that marker on Aug. 2 and Griner in October. That’s a significant youth movement since 2018, when the Mercury came within one quarter of reaching the WNBA Finals.
Diggins-Smith and Bria Hartley, Pitman said, “are really good playmakers to go along with Diana. We wanted to take some pressure off Diana as we move forward in her career. They give us extra ball handling that will allow Diana to do what she does best, which is still facilitate but not have to do it all the time she’s on the court. That’s going to be the big improvement in our team this year.”
Diggins-Smith was All-WNBA first team in 2014 (with Tulsa) and 2017 (Dallas). She missed last season after giving birth to her son so is in a similar comeback situation to 38-year-old Taurasi, limited to six games (26 points) last season because of injuries.
Taurasi was All-WNBA first team in 2018 and believes she can get back or at least close to that level this season and next, when she aspires to play in a fifth Olympics.
“She feels great, the best in years,” Pitman said. “That’s music to my years obviously. She still shoots the ball better than anybody else in our league. I’m really looking forward to seeing her back on the court because I know she has that fire to show she still can do it.”
Taurasi, Diggins-Smith, Griner (for U.S.), Hartley (France) and forward Alanna Smith (Australia) likely would have been at the Olympics right now with Brondello coaching the Aussie Opals had the Tokyo Games not been postponed until 2021.
Brianna Turner and Nia Coffey are projected to be the starting forwards. The supporting cast includes center Kia Vaughn, guard/forward Sophie Cunningham and guard Shatori WalkerKimbrough.
The 6-3 Turner started late last season, rebounding well enough to make the WNBA All-Rookie team. Coffey is in her fourth WNBA season and first with the Mercury, coming with Breland from Atlanta in a three-team trade.
Bonner played primarily small forward but also at power forward in the last two seasons. Coffey and Cunningham, both 6-1, will not be expected to score like long-range threat Bonner from the wing but take advantage of open shots when defenses converge on the Big Three.
“Playing with these players is an absolutely amazing opportunity,” Coffey said.
“You learn so much from them. You see what they bring to the game. It’s very
Up next
Los Angeles vs. Phoenix Mercury, IMG Academy, Bradenton, Florida, noon
Saturday, Channel 15 -- The Sparks were 22-12 in 2019 compared to the Mercury’s 15-19, winning two of the three head-to-head games. LA is without Chiney Ogwumike and Kristi Toliver this season due to health concerns about coronavirus but returns Nneka Ogwumike, Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray while adding Seimone Augustus and Brittney Sykes.
Phoenix Mercury roster
Nia Coffey, F, 6-1, 4th yr., WNBA, age 25
Sophie Cunningham, G, 6-1, 2nd yr., 23
Skylar Diggins-Smith, G, 5-9, 7th yr., 29
Brittney Griner, C, 6-9, 8th year, 29
Bria Hartley, G, 5-8, 7th year, 27
Alanna Smith, F, 6-4, 2nd year, 23
Diana Taurasi, G, 6-0, 16th year, 38
Brianna Turner, F, 6-3, 2nd year, 24
Kia Vaughn, C, 6-4, 11th year, 33
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, G, 5-9, 4th year, 25
Note: Road indication signifies visiting team. All games are at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
different from playing against them. You can only get better by practicing and playing with them.
“I believe this is a championship team. The younger players are looking up to the best who have ever played. Everyone is very selfless and is taking ahold of their role and fulfilling that to the best of their ability. With talent on top of that, the work ethic, the commitment, the sky is the limit for this team.”
In four seasons under the WNBA’s current playoff format, the Mercury have not finished higher than fifth (out of eight) seeds and been forced to play in early round single-elimination games every year. A top-two seed would prevent that and even a No. 3-4 seed would pay off with a first-round playoff bye.
Seattle, with Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird back after an injury season off, is the consensus league favorite followed by Los Angeles, the Mercury’s opening opponent.
After that, Phoenix on paper has as good a chance as anyone for a successful season.