The Phoenix Mercury just shocked the WNBA world after making three roster moves that could potentially land the team its fourth championship trophy.
On Thursday, General Manager Jim Pitman announced that the team traded for phenom WNBA champion guard Diamond DeShields. Then just 24 hours later, Pitman announced the signing of former MVP center Tina Charles. And yet another night’s sleep later, the team re-signed WNBA All-Star guard Kia Nurse.
The players will be part of a Phoenix squad that already includes the most accomplished WNBA player of all time in Diana Taurasi, the league’s best center Brittney Griner, and arguably the best point guard in the league, Skylar Diggins-Smith.
Each of the quintets is an Olympian, two are WNBA MVPs (Taurasi and Charles), and three of them are Number 1 Overall Draft picks (Taurasi, Griner, Charles). Between the five of them, they have racked up a combined 11 Olympic Gold Medals and 32 All-Star appearances.
If there was any doubt that the Mercury was not a superteam, that has been crushed by what appears to be the WNBA-equivalent of the Avengers.
After losing last year’s WNBA Finals, the Mercury is telling the league they aren’t backing down. Making it to the Finals just wasn’t good enough. They want to win.
A month ago, the team seemed to be hanging in limbo. Head Coach Sandy Brondello left for New York, and the Mercury organization looked through head coach applications for what seemed to be an eternity. The Greatest WNBA player of all time, Diana Taurasi was briefly considering retirement, while the contract of Kia Vaughn ate up salary cap space and scared away big free agent names.
Worst of all, it looked as if the Mercury Big-3 (Taurasi, Griner, Diggins-Smith) wasn’t going to have much support because of the maxed-out salary cap.
Insert the Jim Pitman magic.
The General Manager announced the head coaching hire of Vanessa Nygaard, a former player who has been coaching in and out of the WNBA since 2006. Then the team wisely traded away Kia Vaughn, saving $110,000 in cap space. The team still has Shey Peddy, whose 6 points and 2 steals per game during the playoffs helped her earn star status. The Mercury re-signed sharpshooter Sophie Cunningham who played exceptional minutes off the bench in last year’s playoff run. Lastly, the team extended the contract of Kia Nurse, who was looking like a breakout star player in last year’s playoffs before tearing her ACL in the Semifinals.
That’s not even the real fun.
The real fun began when Phoenix traded for ball-handling wizard Diamond DeShields, who averaged over 13 points per game on 40.8% shooting in her career, and helped her Chicago Sky win the Finals. DeShields will be filling Bria Hartley’s role as the team’s quick, agile guard. DeShields, however, is a better passer and has better court vision, which will make offensive movement easier. She’ll be passing to Griner in the paint or to Taurasi behind the three-point arc. DeShields’ passing and shooting experience combined with that of Diggins-Smith will give the team the ability to try out all sorts of new offensive schemes.
The fun continued when the team signed Tina Charles. Griner is especially happy about Charles’ entrance because it means she’s not the team’s lone center. Charles, whose resume includes being an 8-time All-Star, the 2012 WNBA MVP, and the 2021 scoring leader, will be able to split time with Griner at a minute-to-minute ratio. Both centers are wildly dominant underneath the rim and can ruin an opponent’s night with quick catch-and-turn-style shots. They both can play 25 to 30 minutes in their sleep, and they have arm’s length and shoot-blocking ability to complement star defender Brianna Turner.
There were times during last year’s playoff run when Griner would tire toward the end of games because she was forced to play up to 35 minutes and had tough defensive assignments. Teams would often put their tallest player on Griner and then double-team her in the paint, which forced Phoenix into a lot of turnovers. Bringing in a center like Charles will force opponents to scheme for not one, but two dominant interior forces. Charles is also quicker and more nimble than Griner, which should allow Phoenix to experiment having both on the court at once. No doubt will one center or the other be left open for a Griner-jumper or a Charles turnaround-hook.
It’s terrifying to see what these roster additions will do in the Valley. Phoenix’s new playbook has just been opened to a world of possibility, and there’s no doubt that Vanessa Nygaard will take full advantage.
The starting five will likely be Diggins-Smith, DeShields, Turner, Taurasi, and Griner, with the first round of substitutions being Peddy, Cunningham, Nurse, and Charles. Big-3? Try Big-11.
Everyone on Phoenix’s new-look roster is a championship-caliber player, and the team will quickly become any opponent’s worst nightmare.
It’s officially the run-it-back season for the Phoenix Mercury. The team is looking primed, ready, and dangerous. Bet against anyone who doesn’t think this team will bring the Championship trophy back to the Valley.
