Mercury has been retrograde all season. At least that’s the theme of the 2022 WNBA season. Immediately after being bombarded by a WNBA 23 3-point record in a 37-point loss to the Las Vegas Aces, the Phoenix Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. That record-breaking performance was the most benevolent way for the basketball god to slash Phoenix to death after a season spent under Damocles’ blade.
The Aces have been the starters since day one of the season, however, Mercury is a NASCAR consortium that has commanded our attention. Just one season after losing to Chicago in the 2021 WNBA Finals, Mercury became one of the heaviest defeats in the WNBA’s 25 seasons. It wasn’t entirely their fault, but their explosion was unexpected.
Assembled in pre-season to be the Western Conference counterpart to the Las Vegas Aces, the Phoenix season’s degradation began almost immediately with Russia’s arrest of Brittney Griner. National attention weighs on Mercury almost like its hollow progenitor.
The Griner’s newly found role as a cause rather than an anchor of their frontline put Mercury at a disadvantage. They were first asked by the State Department to keep things low. They were then tasked with being the strongest Griner supporters. In NBA terms, Mercury 2022 is the 03-04 Lakers if the Kobe Bryant sexual assault trial takes place in a hostile country. Mix inawarded the penalty of hovering over Griner’s head when she is awaiting trial for a victimless crime compared to the serious charges Kobe faces, and you’ve got a recipe for an anxiety season.
Phoenix had Tina Charles, the WNBA’s goal-scoring champion of 2021 waiting on the wing as their fulcrum before Griner was arrested. Charles’s résumé is somewhat similar to Karl Malone’s in the early 2000s. At 34, she’s past her prime, but Charles’s ability to score after sublimation should have given Mercury a shot. The twin tower complex can overwhelm the defense. That plan fell apart early when Mercury leapt to a 2-8 ..
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With Griner fighting for her freedom, Charles’ offense wasn’t what the Mercury needed. The Mercury needed a committed defender who could keep opposing offenses honest and add a scoring touch. Standing four inches shorter than the 6-foot-8 Griner, Charles was already a downgrade in the paint, but she reportedly drew the ire of teammates for taking plays off. Charles’ 0.3 defensive win share (an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player due to defense) was the worst of her career and her 107 defensive rating (an estimate of points allowed per 100 possessions), was the second-worst defensive rating on a team that earned the league’s third-worst defensive rating,
Charles’ “ divorce contract“The end of June was a boon for Seattle’s championship aspirations, but it was the latest meteor to fall during Mercury’s crater-filled season. Even the once reliable Skylar Diggins-Smith can’t provide stability. She was so volatile in 2022, Mercury was expelled despite her at the end of the season in which she was honored with a sixth All-Star pick. She appeared baffled, talked to Diana Taurasi, mocked head coach Vanessa Nygaard on social media and her contract was eventually suspended by Mercury even as they battled each other for the final playoff seed on the final week of the season. Following all instructions, Diggins-Smith will be shipping this holiday season unless stress chills out in season. There’s no telling what Mercury will look like next season or whether Griner will return to American soil by then.
During the WNBA’s 25th anniversary season, Diana Taurasi was named the greatest player in history, but most of the year was a tagline. A quad injury ended her season early, while winger start Kia Nurse missed the entire season causing a tattered ACL. In game 1, Phoenix’s fearless defender Shey Peddy was added to the infirmary list after rupturing his Achilles tendon.
Griner’s nine-year sentence for drug possession and trafficking, up to double the sentences most commonly used by Russians received for being caught in small quantities of drugs, was a crushing blow. However, Peddy rolling in pain shows unmistakable signs of bearing the heaviest injury any basketball player leaves to his teammates. on the bench in tears and was the highlight of a season engulfed by out-of-court drama. We may never know if Griner is the cog that can get Mercury to work smoothly, but it’s safe to say that without her presence, the 2022 campaign would be one irreversible disaster.
