I am wondering if the new owners will place less importance on keeping Taurasi (assuming Griner doesn't come back). She has a great history with the franchise, but the Mercury may be better of rebuilding than continuing to make Taurasi the face of the franchise and build the team around her. Taurasi is UFA so she might want to go to a contender and its pretty clear that even with Griner they may not be one if SDS has to be traded away (w/o a compensatory return which almost never happens in these situations.)
I also wouldn't be surprised to see a big housecleaning with a new coach, GM, etc, though they might let the current regime have one more season.
If she’s already showing a little, maybe she gives birth in midwinter (February or so?) and tries to come back halfway through the season (on whichever team she’s a part of by then), which should be a lot more spread-out than it was this past season.
I see her trying to come back if her team is good or even if she likes the team she’s on. Perhaps more incentive for Phoenix to trade her for whatever they can get.
BTW - it seems to me that pregnancy cannot be the reason she got suspended. I don't think teams have any right to decide to suspend a player if the reason for her absence is pregnancy.
Every strength is a weakness -- and vice versa ...
Taurasi's fierce competitiveness, which inspires her to live to the worst opinions of her on occasion, also inspires her to keep playing because she loves it.
I'm always happy to see a game with Taurasi in it, because you just never know. Even now, she could get 35. Or she could elbow some youngster for no apparent reason, mouth off to the ref and get ejected in the second quarter.
To me she is sort of the Dale Earnhardt* of the WNBA. He was one of the dirtiest racers ever and his fans loved him for that very reason. He won a lot of racing by cheating but it was in a sport where pretty much everyone was cheating. Phoenix is the perfect place for her.
Barring some truly genius GM work (as well as Griner's return), the outlook for the Mercury is not very promising this year due to lack of cap space, a weak bench and SDS likely taking the summer off. Not really the situation you want for a final tour. Kind of like Sylvia Fowles final run.
Curious what the league will do next season if Griner isn't home(which I hope she is). Isn't she set to be a free agent in 2023?
She is a UFA. Perhaps WNBA will start paying her as a humanitarian gesture to support her family. It would be sort of like the Stewart ambassadorship except they need to come up with a better name for it.
Even if it were just like vet-min (I think that’s what Stewie made with her ambassadorship?), that would absolutely be the right thing to do, and something that could be done.
I think they should pay her whatever she has been making. They might also consider setting up a GoFundMe for the families of BG and other wrongly detained Americans overseas.
If Nygaard getting the axe was dependent on Taurasi retiring, I would think she’s going to be safe for next year – unless of course, Taurasi wants her gone. (Diggins probably already does, but what Taurasi says goes, pretty much.)
Wonder how BG’s release will affect Phoenix’s free agent strategy. Not only do we not yet know if she’s planning on playing at all in 2023, we also don’t know when she’ll make such a decision, as well as if she actually re-signs with Phoenix – she’s a UFA who can no longer be cored.
No matter what, it’s gonna be a real interesting off-season for the Merc. Maybe instead of BG, it all starts with Skylar Diggins-Smith and what happens on that front.