Recent history says, “No.” The league’s general managers say, “They won’t.” The question is: Can the Mercury repeat as WNBA champions? Winning back-to-back titles is one of the hardest things to do in professional sports, but in the WNBA, it used to be commonplace.

Mercury notebook: Team missing 3 stars as opener approaches

Taylor will miss most of Mercury season

Houston won the league’s first four championships (1997-2000). Los Angeles captured the next two (2001-02). However, mostly because of expansion and player movement, no team has been able to repeat since.

Phoenix’s goal this year is simple: Be a blast from the past.

As the Mercury enter the 2008 season, which begins today with a nationally televised home game against the Los Angeles Sparks, they must overcome two major changes.

One is losing their coach.

The other is playing at least the first 27 of their 34 games without All-Star Penny Taylor.

The first is an easy adjustment. Corey Gaines, who takes over for Paul Westhead (now an assistant with the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics), is a Westhead disciple, having played for and coached with him for more than 20 years. A Mercury assistant the past two seasons, Gaines knows the ins and outs of Westhead’s unique up-tempo system, and that has made for a nearly seamless transition.

“I didn’t know what to expect from Corey, but he’s the same as Coach (Westhead),” center Tangela Smith said of preseason practices. “Last year he ran some of the practices, too. It’s just like the same thing.”

Finding a replacement for Taylor, who is skipping the first three months of the season to concentrate on the Olympics with her Australian teammates, won’t be easy.

“Of our three-headed dragon, she was the third head,” Gaines said. “It’s tough, but some things you just can’t avoid in an Olympic year.”

Taylor was one of only two players (Seattle’s Lauren Jackson was the other) last season to rank in the top 11 in the league in points (17.8), rebounds (6.3), field-goal percentage (49.9) and free-throw percentage (88.4). Phoenix, though still with stars \

Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, will have to make up for that loss of Taylor’s production by committee, which is a big reason the league’s GMs didn’t pick Phoenix as the favorite to win it all this year.

That honor went to the Sparks, who because of the return of three-time MVP Lisa Leslie and the addition of heralded rookie Candace Parker, received 42 percent of the votes. Phoenix and Seattle tied for second with 17 percent, but such information hasn’t had any effect on the Mercury’s confidence.

“I feel like we can do it again,” Smith said, noting that other than Taylor, all of the core players are back.

“We have a lot of depth in the post now. We have strong, big bodies and they can still get up and down the court, too, and rebound and play defense.”

Added guard Kelly Miller, “Preseason picks, you can’t really tell much by that. It puts a little more pressure on them (the Sparks). It could work to our advantage.”

Also working to Phoenix’s advantage is the experience factor. Five of its top six scorers return, and its roster includes seven players who have won a title.