When it is hard to imagine the Mercury getting anymore shorthanded than they already are the team just announced star forward Candice Dupree has had surgery.
Dupree has been fighting through various injuries throughout the season and decided to have Arthroscopic Knee Surgery on her left knee during the Olympic Break. The surgery was performed by Dr. Evan Lederman of Phoenix today (July 24th). At this time the tentative timetable is 6-8 weeks of recovery for Dupree before she can get back into any kind of basketball action.
This season Dupree has stepped up to be the teams second leading scorer (14.8 per game) and one of the better rebounders (5.2 per game) on the WNBA's second best rebounding team.
Eight weeks from today the Mercury will be in Los Angeles in their third to last game of the season making this injury basically season ending for Dupree. If all works out she could make it back into the lineup to finish the season, but by then it may not be worth it. The team is currently 4-15 and nearly at the bottom of the Western Conference.
With Dupree out the Mercury are minus their three top scorers from last year in Diana Taurasi (21.6), Penny Taylor (16.7), and Dupree (14.6) as well as a combined 16.30 rebounds per game.
No word yet on whether the team will fill the void on the roster yet or who they would target. This is a blow the team is ready for with Nakia Sanford, Avery Warley, Krystal Thomas, and Lynetta Kizer all playing well in the past six games that Dupree has missed.