Examining the Phoenix Mercury's struggles at the season's midpoint

The Phoenix Mercury is about halfway through the 2022 WNBA season. With a 7-12 record that puts it 10th in overall league standings, there is little to no light at the end of the tunnel. X-Factor is beginning to ask what has gone wrong for this star-studded roster.

After a seven-game losing streak early in the season, critics have questioned the Mercury’s selection of coach Vanessa Nygaard, who played in the WNBA for six years, beginning in New York and ending with a couple of preseason contracts in Houston.

The criticism may be coming too soon, however, for a coach who is still adjusting to the job while facing significant hurdles, most notably the absence of WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner.

Nygaard has a lot of coaching credentials. She began as an assistant coach at Cal State Long Beach in 2003 and moved to Pepperdine in 2004. In 2008, she helped the San Antonio Silver Stars make it to the WNBA finals, then spent a season as an assistant coach for the Washington Mystics in 2009. 

As the coach at Windward School (Los Angeles) for 10 years, she won three state titles. In 2017 Nygaard was an assistant coach for USA Basketball at the FIBA America’s Under-16 Championship and the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup. Most recently, she joined Bill Laimbeer as an assistant coach for the Las Vegas Aces in 2021 before the Mercury hired her in January. 

A Mercury season too good to be true

Nygaard has shown clear ability to coach successfully in other places, but something is just not flowing right within the Mercury. The team features a three-time league champion who is the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and a five-time Olympic gold medalist in Diana Taurasi. It features four-time WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has finished in the top 10 in scoring and assists in the league four times. It also boasts Diamond DeShields, who won a WNBA championship last season with the Chicago Sky. And it had top-five scorer, five-time WNBA All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist Tina Charles until she left the club unexpectedly on Saturday.

Somehow, the Mercury still has the third worst record in the league. 

It is absolutely fair to give a fresh team and a fresh coaching staff some time to adjust and learn how to play together. With the added stress and immeasurable impact that Griner’s unlawful detention in Russia is having on this team, it is understandable why the Mercury might not be playing its best. And it is understandable that tempers have begun to flair for even the most seasoned veterans. 

Taurasi and Diggins-Smith were seen getting into a heated discussion earlier this season during the Mercury’s game against the Las Vegas Aces. While that incident happened a while ago and tempers tend to flare when two supreme athletes are in game mode, the incident still looks like a foreshadowing of what is turning out to be a rocky season.

Illnesses and injuries haven’t helped either. Skylar missed a couple of games due to a non-COVID related illness. Kia Nurse is out indefinitely as she recovers from an ACL tear. Sophie Cunningham is just now making a return after suffering from a sprained elbow against the LA Sparks.

This team is no stranger to misfortune. 

Going, Going, Gone

Things got worse when the news broke Saturday morning that the Mercury and Tina Charles had agreed to a contract divorce. In a statement, Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman said: “After discussions with Tina and her agent, it was best for both parties to go our operate ways at this time.” 

A few minutes before that news broke, the team announced the release of forward and local product Kristine Anigwe.

The other night the Phoenix Mercury had the worst body language of any team I’ve ever seen and one of their superstars just peaces out a day later… we need better reporting on this league because I want to know what the heck is going on there

— Matthew Coller (@MatthewColler) June 25, 2022

It was another huge blow for the organization and another ripple through the already unsteady foundation the X-Factor has to stand on. All over social media, fans raised questions about this sudden move and what it meant for the rest of this season. 

It has not been all bad news, however. On June 11, former Mercury player Penny Taylor was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, after a successful career both here and in her home country of Australia where she played for the national team. 

During her time on the floor for the Mercury she led the team to three WNBA championships. Taylor is often hailed by fans and teammates as one of the best players the franchise has ever seen. She spent some time as an assistant coach for the Mercury but eventually stepped down to focus on her and Diana Taurasi’s two children, Leo and Isla. 

Taylor’s induction has been one of the few bright spots this season for Phoenix, unfortunately.

I think we can all agree the moves that have been made both on and off the court don’t make much sense at face value. Why the Mercury ended their relationship with coach Sandy Brondello after a finals appearance was puzzling. Trading off draft picks and leaving little wiggle room for the future was also strange. And now Nygaard is under scrutiny for not utilizing the bench and giving rookies the opportunity to prove themselves.

There are so many factors involved in why things are going wrong that it is easy to get caught up in the blame game. The Mercury needs to focus on what’s happening on the floor, clean up its offense, create plays that utilize its talent and put players in positions to make good decisions. It needs to find a cohesive defense and make stops, not let the other team set a pace that it can’t match so it is chasing its offense every other basket. The Mercury needs to go back and re-establish the basics and then build from there.

Most fans are trying to remain positive with the hope that there’s more happening behind the scenes that we don’t know about. Maybe this is the storm before the calm.