Evidence for my claim...
In 2013, the Mercury drafted Griner.
Well done.
Since then, they've gotten frighteningly little from their first round picks.
In 2014, they traded their pick for Erin Philips, who played one season for them.
The pick was Natalie Achonwa, a solid rotation player who is still only 25.
In 2015, they drafted Isabelle Harrison. Another productive young player.
In 2016, they took Courtney Williams 8th overall. They traded her PLUS assets for one middling year of backup veteran Kelsey Bone.
In 2017, they traded Harrison AND the 5th pick in the draft for Danielle Robinson. She was not good.
In 2018, one year later, they got the 12th pick in the draft for Robinson. Meaning they turned the 5th pick in 2017 and the 12th pick in 2015 into the 12th pick of 2018.
That draft was about 10 players deep imho, and they could have picked the promising Kia Nurse at 8 (she was my pick at the time) had they not traded the pick for Briann January, who averaged 7.0 ppg in this, her 10th season. Nurse might already be better.
Instead they took Marie Gulich, who plays the same position as Griner.
That's a lot of wasted draft picks for a team whose weakness is depth, and it doesn't bode well for the future that Stephanie Talbot is the only contributor under the age of 25 and that there's not a single player on the entire roster under 24.
Of course, Griner is 25, so when Bonner and DT call it quits, the Mercury will have Griner and...not much else? It's not like free agency usually offers big results in the WNBA, and Griner will be enough to likely limit their chance for a super high pick.
Not to throw a damper on the party...but it just has bothered me for years, and the Williams thing really highlighted the issue at a critical time.
