Phoenix Mercury: Roster Construction and the CBA
In the second season of the new CBA, some patterns have emerged for the Phoenix Mercury.
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When the new collective bargaining agreement was negotiated last year, the Phoenix Mercury made a very deliberate decision about how they would construct their roster going forward. Fielding a competitive team was always important but paying their stars what the new market allowed was crucial.
“We obviously want to make sure that our star players got paid the amounts that they deserve,” general manager Jim Pitman said last May. “And so that was at the top of our list.”
Those priorities have not changed. After signing Brittney Griner to a supermax deal last year and negotiating a sign-and-trade for Skylar Diggins-Smith that also gave her a top salary, the team went into this free agency period knowing that there was one more star they needed to take care of: Diana Taurasi.
Putting Taurasi on a supermax contract means that the Mercury are paying $664,350 of their $1,339,000 available salary to three players. After adding in the injured Bria Hartley, who was signed to a significant contract last year that will pay her $190,550 this season, Phoenix had just under $485,000 to spend on up to eight players.
Teams who go all-in on a roster full of star veterans generally have a closing window to win titles with those current stars. Having a generational talent like Taurasi or Sue Bird who is approaching or just past her 40th birthday may make a team more anxious to win another championship before that generation of stars finally leaves the game.
To accomplish that, teams must deal with the new reality under the current CBA. It is very difficult to give multiple stars maximum or supermaximum deals and maintain a full roster of 12 players. So, roster depth takes the hit.
Like the Chicago Sky and a few other teams, the Mercury will proceed with an 11-player roster this season. For the Mercury, it will be the second straight year that they have chosen to go with a smaller bench. Their depth will take a further hit in the early going as Hartley continues to rehab from the ACL injury she suffered last August..
At the end of April, Henry Schleizer of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported that Hartley had returned to limited on-court activities in preparation for her return to play, but the Mercury have still not announced a timetable. The average recovery time required for athletes to return to their sport after an ACL injury is eight to 12 months. Hartley underwent surgery on Sept. 18, 2020.
“It will be great to have Bria Hartley once she's back healthy,” Brondello said at the team’s preseason media day. “We're talking down the track, but once she's back, it gives us more playmaking.”
In the interim, the Mercury will try to get by with one less guard.
There have been a few hitches as the team prepares for the post-bubble season. For the second straight season, the Mercury had missing pieces during training camp. Last year, Diggins-Smith did not practice with the squad at all during camp and Sophie Cunningham’s bout with COVID-19 kept her away from practice until July 19.
This season, it was the more mundane reason of overseas commitments that kept Griner, Brianna Turner, and new addition Megan Walker away until last week. Kia Vaughn has still not rejoined the Mercury after her championship season in Turkey, forcing the team to suspend her for part of the season in order to add Ciera Burdick lest they enter the season with just nine healthy players. The absence of Hartley adds to that.
Griner is playing with the Mercury for the first time since last August when she unexpectedly left the bubble in Bradenton, Fla. for undisclosed personal reasons. Since that time, she has worked with a therapist off the court and won a championship with her Russian team on the court. Having her back and on the same page as the rest of the team is crucial to Phoenix’s chances.
“I just think when you look around our team this year, we just have to become a more balanced team,” Taurasi said. “I think that's the one thing that when I look at our roster, if we can become a more balanced team offensively and defensively, then we have a much better chance of getting to where we want to go and we all know what BG can do when she comes here focused and ready to go. She's the most unstoppable force in our game….She looks amazing after her Russian season. She looks strong and fit. You know, it's up to BG what she wants to do. When she's on her game, she makes us one of the best teams in the league.”
In addition to a more traditional training camp and the return of their All-Star center, the Mercury have the advantage this year of a roster composed almost entirely of returners. After their final cuts were made on May 12, the roster consisted of Taurasi, Griner, Diggins-Smith, Turner, Walker, Hartley, Cunningham, Vaughn, Kia Nurse, Alanna Smith, and Shey Peddy. Since that time, they have suspended Vaughn and added Burdick.
Of that group, only Walker, Nurse, and Burdick are new to the team this year. The advantage for Walker and Nurse is that they are at least familiar with each other, both having arrived via a trade with the New York Liberty back in February. When Hartley returns, Nurse will have another teammate she is familiar with from her time with the Liberty.
The Mercury were able to add a 2019 All-Star in Nurse and a second-year player in Walker for nothing more than draft picks. Just as important considering the salary cap, they added a proven contributor and the 9th pick from the 2020 draft for a total of $133,791.
Now, they have to see how it all works together.
“I think the biggest priority is just getting more time together with the players who have just arrived in Brittney and Brianna Turner,” Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello said as they headed into the preseason. “And we have Megan Walker... she's a new newcomer. So it's just getting those players kind of integrated, to be quite honest. I suppose the good thing is, I think we're ahead of where we were last year because Skylar is in training camp. She's used to the system. Diana's here. Kia Nurse, obviously, really smart player and has picked up things well. And we've brought a lot of our pieces back, and I think that certainly helps to develop a little bit quicker. But, look, we're gonna learn a lot just by playing those preseason games just to see where we're at.”
Where they were at on May 8 when they faced the Seattle Storm in their only preseason game was without most of their players. Walker sat out, as expected. Vaughn was not available. Hartley continues to heal, and Peddy did not play. Griner, Taurasi, and Diggins-Smith played only in the first half. It was a decisive Storm victory, as expected.
The two teams met up again on Monday, May 10 in a closed scrimmage, then the Mercury departed for their three-game road trip to open the season.
“We start with three games in five days on the road,” Brondello said. “But that's good for us. We have to look forward to those challenges.”
Opening day was positive, as the Mercury picked up a win in their game against the Minnesota Lynx, but Phoenix ran into a tougher challenge from the Connecticut Sun on Sunday. The Sun led by as many as 13 and held off the Mercury while both Griner and Taurasi ran into foul trouble.
If the Mercury hope to compete for that fourth title, rising to the challenge against teams like the Sun is a must. Time will tell if banking on a smaller roster full of highly-paid vets will get the job done.
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