5. Phoenix Mercury select Mikayla Pivec, 5’10 G, Oregon State
There’s no real weakness in Mikayla Pivec’s game. She’s extremely efficient from two and three, she rebounds the ball extremely well for a guard, she’s a gifted passer. Synergy loves her defense, too — she ranked 86th of 711 players, minimum 200 possessions, in defensive points per possessions last season. The only concern anyone seems to have about her is that she may be a tweener — too small to guard threes, too slow to stick with twos. But those players excel in Phoenix, where Sandy Brondello‘s system rewards the multi-dimensional, and it is easy to see Pivec joining veterans and young players alike, from Briann January to Sophie Cunningham, in a symphony of shooting around Brittney Griner and DeWanna Bonner, and, while it pains us to say so, an eventual replacement for Diana Taurasi.