What we learned from the Phoenix Mercury's season

The Phoenix Mercury’s season hasn’t gone the way the team intended for Brittney Griner’s homecoming, but the team learned several key lessons during a rare losing season.

The Mercury went 9-31 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2012. The air was full of disappointment for the team, but the players don't foresee a rebuild considering the changes under owner Mat Ishbia and new general manager Nick U'Ren.

“I say this all the time. We’re really really far, but we’re really really close,” Diana Taurasi said. “There’s not many leagues where you can go from the bottom of the barrel to the top. We’ve seen that and done that here in Phoenix. We’ve seen other teams do that in the WNBA. Wherever those ping pong balls land, it’s a deep class.”

Looking at the Draft Lottery

There haven’t been many years where the Mercury aren’t in the playoffs, but looking back at the seasons where the team was in a great position for the Draft Lottery, it has gone in its favor. In both 2004 and 2013, the Mercury won the first overall pick and selected Taurasi and Griner.

The current draft class is stacked with talent and depth, giving the Mercury another chance to potentially pick a franchise player.

“If you can get a player that changes your franchise for the next 10 to 15 years, you’re one pretty lucky team,” Taurasi said. “When you look at this draft class and look at what these kids have done in the last three or four years, there’s a couple of names where that could change your whole team.”

Related: 2024 WNBA draft prospects who could fit in lottery-bound Phoenix Mercury's roster

It will be a big offseason for U’Ren, who took over following Jim Pitman’s retirement. The lottery takes the last two seasons into account, which means the Mercury finished with the second-best odds.

“I’m hopeful it can be turned around quickly,” U’Ren said. “I’m not a fan of making big proclamations or anything, we got to do the work and we got to see what happens. I think in this league, things can get turned around relatively quickly. In theory, we have a better version of BG coming back next year and she’s been through so much the last few months.”

The search for a head coach

Whether Nikki Blue’s interim title gets dropped and promoted to head coach remains to be seen. Blue took over the team at 2-10 when Vanessa Nygaard was fired and managed a 7-21 record. In the season, there will only seven games where the entire roster was available.

Through her time leading the team, she earned the respect of her players and received praise from them about her future with the team.

“That means everything to me. We were in the trenches together fighting and I’m glad that they appreciate the efforts from me and my coaching staff,” Blue said. “There will be some big decisions coming up and hopefully the people that make these decisions see that if we have a full roster and players that can contribute from my X’s and O’s and leadership, we can do some good things.”

U’Ren confirmed that Blue is a candidate for the job and will take account the player feedback he receives.

“She’s stepped into a situation where it was really difficult and she didn’t get to put her own stuff in at training camp,” U’Ren said. “I think she handled herself really well considering the hand she was dealt. I’m meeting with all the players and certainly their opinions are helpful data points to use.”

Griner's offseason plans

Griner wasn’t pleased with her performance this season, despite finishing as the team’s leading scorer with 17.5 points per game. Most of her criticism comes from her conditioning after having a short turnaround coming back from Russia. She’ll get a break this offseason after vowing to never play overseas unless it’s the Olympics.

“Being able to take this offseason where I’ve never had before and actually work on myself, my game, body, conditioning,” Griner said. “I can study game and not have to worry about what my team needs from me if I were overseas. I can worry about what I need to do for my team here for the next season this whole offseason.”

The Mercury have several pending free agents to lock down and Griner will remain a priority. But she won’t go far as she laughed off a question about whether she would test her free agency elsewhere.

“Phoenix is home. It’s where I’ve been. Me and my wife just got a place. This is it,” Griner said.

What will happen with Skylar Diggins-Smith

One player whose future with the team isn’t as certain is Skylar Diggins-Smith. Diggins-Smith produced at a high clip in the 2022 season and didn’t return from maternity leave this season. The decision on if the point guard will stay or go elsewhere is a major concern for the team.

U’Ren has not talked with Diggins-Smith's agent, but will be in touch following exit interviews.

Due to rules regarding maternity leave, the Mercury didn’t comment much about Diggins-Smith's future. Taurasi was asked about Diggins-Smith and said “next question.”

Other teammates did talk about Diggins-Smith and her unknown future.

“I don’t know her plans. I haven’t talked to her in a little bit,” Sophie Cunningham said. “I hope she’s doing well and her babies are healthy and she’s happy. I really don’t know the plans and I think anybody would lucky to have a player like Skylar on their roster. I think she’s top-three in the league right now.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What we learned from the Phoenix Mercury's season