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Will Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner be back with the Phoenix Mercury next year?

It’s a question that must be faced that must be faced for the first time since Griner joined the team as WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick in 2013. She and Taurasi, No. 1 overall pick in 2004, have been Mercury and/or Russian League teammates for most of eight years including a WNBA title run in 2014.

Now Taurasi is an unrestricted free agent late in her career and Griner only played half a season this summer, leaving the WNBA bubble for still unexplained personal reasons.

Griner, still under contract for two years, seemingly would return and Taurasi would re-sign for one or two more years as part of a core that now includes Skylar Diggins-Smith. They are, after all, candidates for the U.S. Olympic team that will seek a seventh consecutive gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Games.

But what once seemed like a given — that Griner would take the handoff from Taurasi as the face of the Mercury — isn’t as clear given the public murkiness surrounding Griner’s Aug. 21 departure from the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Florida.

Griner, who averaged 17.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists over 12 games, has yet to address the matter. Team officials are toeing the privacy-driven initial explanation for the most part, only elaborating to strongly deny some recent social media postings.

“Going into the bubble, a lot of players made decisions they didn’t think they could be in there,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. “BG initially had reservations about going in, but she tried and it didn’t work so she left the bubble. That’s it.

“She probably shouldn’t have went into the bubble. It’s not for everybody. I love BG, she’s had some great years. I have a great relationship with her. Hopefully she’s a part of this team next year as well. Only time will tell I suppose.”

MORE: Phoenix Mercury forward Brianna Turner named to WNBA All-Defensive First Team

Griner signed a three-year super max salary contract in February after saying during the 2019 season (when she was second in WNBA Most Valuable Player voting) that she only wanted to play in the U.S. for the Mercury.

Diggins-Smith is under contract through 2023, also at a super max salary. Taurasi, WNBA career scoring leader, showed at age 38 that she still is deserving of a super max contract.

So between 6-9 center Griner and the guard trio of Diggins-Smith, Taurasi and Bria Hartley, under max salary contract through 2022, the Mercury could be spending 63 percent of their salary cap on four players.

That creates another financial puzzle for Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman, and likely another season carrying 11 players instead of the maximum 12 to remain under the 2021 cap ($1,339,000).

“When you to pay your star players what they’re worth, you have some salary cap issues,” Pitman said. “But we will manage to get that done.”

Specifically on Griner, Pitman said, “She’s under contract for two more years with us. We expect she’ll be a WNBA player and that we’ll look forward to getting the best group we can together to win. Hopefully she’ll be back and playing. I have no reason to doubt that.”

Silver anniversary season coming up 

Going into their silver anniversary season as one of just three WNBA original teams still in the same city, the Mercury will have big plans for Taurasi and their three-title heritage. Pittman said there is a “good chance” of the Mercury playing at renovated Talking Stick Resort Arena instead of at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where they would have played in a COVID-less 2020.

Taurasi said Sept. 17 that she “hopefully has a couple more seasons,” not only to play in a fifth Olympics but perhaps add another WNBA championship and reach 10,000 career points. “There’s a lot of factors that go into it more than just being healthy. There’s some things I’ve got to figure out.”

Taurasi (18.7 ppg/4.2 rpg/4.5 apg) and Diggins-Smith (17.7/3.3/4.2) made the Associated Press All-WNBA second team and showed especially in the second half of the season how well they can play off each other on pick/roll and a slashing/3-point combination. 

Neither played much or in Diggins-Smith’s case at all in 2019 so for both to achieve all-league accolades bodes well for the short term.

“I love the style we were able to develop toward the end of the season,” Pitman said. “We got to see the Skylar that we were expecting when we signed here. That was all really good.”

The Mercury transformed on the fly into a guard-powered transition team taking advantage of a spacious lane normally occupied by Griner.

After going 6-6 with Griner, the Mercury lost the first game without her before winning a season-high seven straight. This despite the loss Hartley to a season-ending knee injury in just the third game without Griner. 

The Mercury would go 8-4 overall without Griner including a pair of one-point playoff elimination games. Their rebounding and blocks somewhat surprisingly went up without Griner while their opponent scoring average and shooting percentages went down.

They barely missed out on a seventh semifinals appearance in eight years (since 2013) despite 62 missed games due to injury/absence by players projected to be contributors in a 22-game regular season (down from the originally scheduled 36). 

Pitman believes a truncated training camp and compressed first dozen games was not enough time for the new guard alignment to align with Griner.

“With so many new faces, 12 games isn’t maybe fair to say we saw what we had,” he said. “It just took some time for everybody to adapt to the personnel we had. We didn’t really have the regular preseason to develop that chemistry. We didn’t have Skylar in the preseason (due to a knee injury).

“And when you’re playing literally every other day, you don’t have time to really practice.  In a normal situation 12 games would have taken another couple of weeks plus you had a couple of extra weeks of training camp playing together. It wasn’t unexpected we didn’t have everything mesh in those first 12 games.”

Hartley, Turner earn key roles 

Hartley (14.6/2.9/4.5) had major right knee surgery Sept. 18 so a nine-month recovery would extend into June for a regular season that under a typical timetable during an Olympic year would begin in mid-May. She also is the starting point guard on the French Olympic team.

“We were just one player short,” Brondello said. “Obviously (losing) Bria Hartley really hurt us. Even though we played well from there, Bria would have given us a big boost to finish the season. Then Shey Peddy got concussed in that last game (80-79 loss to Minnesota), and that hurt us too.”

The Mercury core going forward certainly includes forward Brianna Turner (7.2/9.0/2.0 bpg) who made the WNBA All-Defensive first team in her second season with the third most votes from league coaches. Her rebounding average is the best in franchise history albeit in a shortened season. 

“She’s a superstar and is going to keep getting better and better,” Brondello said of Turner, who will play in Russia during the international season. “She’s got everything defensively, now it’s just improving her range offensively. She’s a great young player to build around.”

In addition to Turner, forward Alanna Smith and guard Sophie Cunningham from the 2019 draft class are under entry level contract through 2022. Both continue to show flashes and are affordable.

Free agent center Kia Vaughn became essential with Griner’s departure, averaging 10.1 points/5.2 rebounds over the final 12 games including playoffs.

“I don’t know if we would have done what we did without her,” Brondello said.

Re-signing Vaughn would seem to be priority although Pitman also must decide if there is enough money for forward Jessica Breland, unable to play this season because of a pre-existing medical condition. Turner’s emergence lessens the need to pay a mid-range salary for a veteran like Breland. 

Arguments can be made for and against re-signing Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Nia Coffey, Yvonne Turner (out this year with a major knee injury) and Peddy. There likely won’t be roster or cap space for all of them particularly if the Mercury’s No. 6 overall pick in the 2021 draft makes the team. 

“We’ll see what the market looks like,” during free agency in February, Pitman said. “We’ll try to fill out our roster as best we can, but we do really like our core group that will be back,” particularly if the Taurasi/Griner era continues. 

Phoenix Mercury 2021

Signed 

C Brittney Griner (2021 salary, $221,450)

G Skylar Diggins-Smith ($221,450)

G Bria Hartley ($190,550)

F Brianna Turner ($58,710)

F Alanna Smith ($58,710)

F Sophie Cunningham ($58,710)

Unrestricted free agent

Free to sign with any team provided that she is not designated as a core player by her prior team

G Diana Taurasi

F Jessica Breland

C Kia Vaughn

Restricted free agent

Restricted free agency gives the player’s prior team the right to keep the player by matching a contract offer the player signs with another team

G Shatori Walker-Kimbrough

F Nia Coffey

Reserved

The player’s prior team has exclusive negotiating rights

G Shey Peddy

Suspended

The player’s prior team has exclusive negotiating rights 

G Yvonne Turner

MORE: Minnesota Lynx edge Phoenix Mercury in WNBA playoff second round

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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