hot take: BG MVP SDS comes back on a tear a after her pregnancy DT goes out in glory, finals MVP on her way to her 4th ring Nygaard COY and most incredible of all-- Gustafson 6POY
hot take: BG MVP SDS comes back on a tear a after her pregnancy DT goes out in glory, finals MVP on her way to her 4th ring Nygaard COY and most incredible of all-- Gustafson 6POY
I was reading this and wondering, “where is this all coming from??” And then I got to the Gustafson part, and was like, “ohhhh I get it now.”
Given the timeframes, I don’t think Griner is going to play in the 2023 WNBA season. I don’t think Diggins-Smith will either. 2023 really should be a tank year for the Mercury but it’s likely to be DT’s final year so that would be a bit awkward.
Caitlin Clark would be the perfect heir to Taurasi too…
On top of BG’s situation – which of course is different from Diggins’ situation – you then have Taurasi who I’m guessing will be playing in her final year and probably wouldn’t want to go through a rebuild if she were to re-sign. (She may have already committed to re-signing with the Merc, but imo plans can change on her end if plans change on the Merc’s end.)
So then you contend… but unless BG tells the Merc that she’s sitting out the season before free agency starts, you kinda have to save her a roster spot aka enough salary cap space. (You probably can’t tell her to either decide now or you’ll let her walk – bad optics and then she actually walks!). And I don’t know what they would do if they got a 10-man roster together with the one spot open for her, only for her to decide at the eleventh hour not to play. At that point, you can’t replace her spot with someone as talented as her, so then are you really contending at that point?
Everything would kinda be easier for the Merc if they traded Diggins-Smith for whatever they could get and just told Taurasi, “hey we’re rebuilding, you can either re-sign with us and we’ll give you the supermax, or you can sign somewhere else”, in which whether Taurasi chooses to stay or not, the Merc would be able to accommodate a Griner-sized salary at any point in the season with rebuilding team-level cap space. Even with Griner, the Merc would probably still be a bad team if she’s surrounded by a 40-year old Taurasi and no other (player resembling a) star.
I'm curious to see what DT does if Griner opts to not play AND Diggins-Smith gets traded. Would she possibly look to play for another team to try and get another title? Taurasi would be working with Turner, Gustafson, DeShields, Peddy, Nurse if she signs again with Phoenix.
There's enough free agents for them to load up on. Definitely not a contender if Griner sits out and SDS wants a trade. Can't see DT going elsewhere when she could just announce this as her final season.
Then again, where else would Taurasi go? Hard to imagine her playing anywhere but Phoenix for her farewell tour.
I’ll give you two teams:
—LA: home area and has some roster spots open these days —Seattle: why not use the GOAT as a stopgap for that open PG spot?
But I don’t think Taurasi leaves Phoenix, either. Especially considering they don’t have a draft pick in the first round, I don’t see them trying to rebuild at all. It’s BG or bust (kinda like last year), methinks.
Seems like it would be pretty hard to trade SDS (expiring contract) and it's unknown how much of next season she will playing. She sat out the entire season after birth of her first child.
I thought she sat out 2019 mostly cuz of postpartum depression (which she hopefully doesn't have this time around) and also cuz she was pissed at Dallas for making her feel like she had to play while pregnant the season before...
She'll definitely have that baby before the season starts if she was already showing in October (my guess is March?). If she's then emotionally up for playing after it's been a few months since giving birth, I think at some point midseason, she'll play. In spite of this, I also think a team will be willing to trade one or two negligible assets and take on at least her salary just in case, especially if a team is looking to offload a bad contract. Maybe her hypothetical new team would require her to sign a one-year extension or something.
She's also just starting to run out of time to get that elusive first title. ("Wrong side of 30" and all that.) All of this is why I think we'll see her play at some point for some team in 2023.
That 11th player will absolutely need to be a PG, considering Peddy will be out for most if not all of 2023 with her Achilles rupture of the playoffs. Taurasi can run point, but then, she's injury-prone herself – as are Nurse & DeShields.
It's an older, more injury-prone bunch. And then of course, this would all assume Griner can return to her MVP form. If I were a Merc fan, this depth chart would make me feel very uneasy.
Things would've been different if Griner were there last year, considering Tina Charles was at one point. Maybe she would've been back this year, too. The Merc were my preseason, pre-Griner arrest pick to win it all – although who's to say Vanessa Nygaard wouldn't have messed it all up anyway.
It's an interesting situation for the league regarding point guards. There looks like a potential shortage with nobody halfway decent on the upcoming draft. Phoenix will need one or possibly two if Diggins bounces. Seattle has no PGs, Minnesota could keep Jefferson, New York is questionable in their PG department, Hiedeman probably leaves Connecticut. There are the vets in Sydney Colson, Lindsay Allen, Clarendon, Sims, and D-Rob that will continue to sneak onto a roster.
i'm holding out hope that a former PG from UW, Jazmine Davis, earns a camp invite from somewhere. since graduating in 2015, she has played her way up into the Turkey league and is playing on Emma Cannon's team this year as the team's other star player (it's a weak team tbf). statistically she's so-so, though she wouldn't have to be a star player by any means in the W, especially as a bench player.
GMs are probably looking mainly overseas these days to find some diamonds-in-the-rough showrunners given that very shortage. if Davis and/or other PGs in the same boat as her are gonna get a real chance, this is the year.
This is basically the 2021 Finals team with a few adjustments. I don't think they'd do better than 2021 though, because SDS and Griner's form are big question marks.
A tank season for 2023 really is the best option. Trade SDS and don't rush Griner back - I seriously doubt she'll be properly ready to play a full WNBA season. As previously mentioned, awkward for DT but I have to wonder whether she's seriously expecting a championship run with Phoenix given their situation. She could go elsewhere but that brings other potential complications (I smirk at the idea of DT having to adjust to being a backup shooter off the bench).
Taurasi will be a starter wherever she goes, and that shouldn't be an issue if she's willing to be a full-time PG (like she was in 2014, the last time Phoenix won it all) given that shortage of quality PGs. She'd be fine as a stopgap somewhere if she can keep the injury bug at bay.
sp -I'm smirking now at Taurasi's comments a few years back when she said she was lucky to have been drafted by the Mercury because as she said derisively "I could have a Mystic." Mystics are now a contender and could use a player like DT off the bench (as could a number of other teams.) I still think she stays in Phoenix.
I question whether Taurasi is a starter on a championship calibre team at this stage of her career. Her offense can be charitably described as streaky and doesn't make up for her non-existent defense. She's a below average shooter in the league now and the only thing keeping up her scoring efficiency is her free throw rate and percentage. Asking her to adjust her role significantly now is ambitious and I'm not sure there are teams clamoring to get fading superstars to enhance their championship chances (especially after seeing McCoughtry and Charles last season).
sp -I'm smirking now at Taurasi's comments a few years back when she said she was lucky to have been drafted by the Mercury because as she said derisively "I could have a Mystic." Mystics are now a contender and could use a player like DT off the bench (as could a number of other teams.) I still think she stays in Phoenix.
She's won three championships in Phoenix and Washington has only won one. I don't think she's unhappy with this situation.
Taurasi’s used to both running the offense and being on-ball dominant (for better or worse!) so there would be little to no adjustment there at this point. And she’s still someone who can efficiently put up 30 points on any given night as evidenced last year, so I think whoever signs her will be accepting of her streakiness, and understand that they’re not bringing her on to be a bench player – something she’s never been before.