Phoenix Mercury Persists To Reach WNBA Knockout For 10th Season in a Row

Although playing with anxiety about confinement Brittney Grinerbreak up with Tina Charles and no Diana Taurasi or Skylar Diggins-Smith in the last week of the regular season, Phoenix Mercury persisted to reach the WNBA knockouts.

Mercury earned their spot even before the regular season finale against Chicago on Sunday. With Minnesota’s defeat at Connecticut, the Lynx were eliminated, and then New York beat Atlanta, eliminating Dream.

As a result, the final two playoffs go to Mercury and Liberty on Sunday. They join Las Vegas, Chicago, Connecticut, Seattle, Washington and Dallas. The WNBA will return to the series format in the post-season this year after the first and second round knockouts over the past six years.

Phoenix, founded in 1997, was one of the original WNBA franchises, and Mercury has won three WNBA titles. This is their 17th playoff appearance. But this season is the franchise’s biggest challenge to date.

Coach Sandy Brondello was fired after eight seasons, despite his trip to the WNBA Finals last year, and was replaced by Vanessa Nygaard, who has never been a head coach of the WNBA before. Griner, the 2013 No. 1 draft pick and a big part of the 2014 Mercury champion team, has been in prison in Russia for drug offenses since mid-February and was recently sentenced to nine years in prison.

Mercury spoke throughout the season about how hard that situation had affected them. They had to play in Connecticut on August 4 after watching Griner sentencing earlier that day. After that game, Diggins-Smith was clearly annoyed when speaking to the media. She did not play in Phoenix’s next game, August 6, because the illness was listed as a non-COVID-related illness, and then missed the final three games of the season due to personal reasons.

Diggins-Smith’s relationship with Nygaard seemed strained throughout the season, and at this point the former Notre Dame star’s future with Mercury seems uncertain. She has one more year left on her current contract with the team.

Taurasi last competed on 2 August but has been sidelined since then due to a quadriplegia, and her knockout qualification has yet to be officially announced.

Mercury also parted ways with one of their free agent deals of the season, agreeing to a contractual divorce (similar to an NBA buyout) with Charles at the end of June. Charles was unhappy with her role in Phoenix and left to join rival Seattle, also in the knockout stages.

But even with injuries and absences, Mercury was able to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Sophie Cunningham has been a contender for the most improved player in the league this season, and one of Mercury’s other free agents, Diamond DeShieldshas been a strong contributor.