Optimism was high in April when the Mercury used the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft to grab Diana Taurasi, the University of Connecticut point guard many consider the best woman collegiate basketball player ever.

Yet, with just more than half of their 34-game schedule completed, the 8-11 Mercury find themselves struggling to make the WNBA playoffs.

Fans should remember, though, that a year ago after 19 games, the Mercury were just 3-16. So has the season been a great success?

Maybe.

The following is an obviously subjective grading of the first half of the season for the Mercury:

GUARDS — A-: Taurasi quickly has proven that at times, she can dominate at the next level. Unfortunately for the Mercury, she still has a learning curve acclimating to professional basketball. When Taurasi finally is totally comfortable in the WNBA, it will be lights out for opponents — it just probably won’t be this season.

Taurasi’s backcourt mate, 28-year-old Anna DeForge, has gone from a player hoping to make the team last season to one of the WNBA’s best shooters. After scoring a career-high 31 points in a loss last Sunday at New York, the long-range sharpshooter is averaging 15.3 points per game, eighth best in the WNBA. More importantly, she draws attention away from Taurasi (fifth in the league at 18.0) and forward Penny Taylor (17th at 12.2), which ends up benefitting all three of them.

A pleasant surprise has been Tamara Moore, who can play either guard spot and usually is on the court at crunch time.

FORWARDS — B: The Mercury are quite talented at this position. Taylor, obtained in the offseason as the top pick in the WNBA dispersal draft, clearly is one of the best forwards in the league. Taylor can shoot from the outside but possesses some of the strongest moves to the basket in the league.

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Second-year player Plenette Pierson has shown the ability to score under the correct circumstances. A nagging hamstring injury, though, has kept Pierson from exploding. Veteran Nikki McCray started most the season until being benched recently. McCray played great defense but was too much of an offensive liability on a young team searching for points.

CENTERS — D+: This position has been the major weakness of the Mercury all season. With 6-foot-4 Slobodanka Tuvic behind because she reported to training camp late, Adrian Williams — a WNBA All-Star last season as a forward — was asked to start the season at center.

Neither Williams nor coach Carrie Graf ended up liking that move, and Williams did not flourish. Tuvic took the position over, but thus far she has been a disappointment, far too often getting into early foul trouble.

Rookie Ashley Robinson eventually could end up getting the most minutes.

COACHES — A-: It would be easy to just judge first-year coach Graf on victory totals. The Mercury won only eight of 34 games last season; this season they already have won eight games in 19 outings. That really, though, is no way to measure what Graf is doing. She has settled down a young team and has it thinking of just one game at a time. Her game strategies usually are solid, though she must accept some of the blame for the Mercury’s recent lastminute losses.

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