Only starters Cappie Pondexter, the Most Valuable Player in the WNBA finals, and playmaker Kelly Miller are under contract through next season, said Mercury General Manager Ann Meyers Drysdale. She also might have to search for a head coach if Paul Westhead joins Seattle SuperSonics coach P.J. Carlesimo's staff as an assistant.

After the Mercury clinched the championship in a victory over Detroit in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Sunday, Westhead said he would make a decision in "a couple of days."

"I need to talk to the team and let all this settle in," Westhead said yesterday.

Westhead's players, including All-Star Diana Taurasi, sounded Sunday as if they expect the former Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Denver Nuggets head coach to join the NBA staff being assembled by Carlesimo, his friend and colleague for three decades.

"I've learned more from him in two years just about how to coach a team," said Taurasi, who hopes Westhead returns but isn't counting on it. "He's just gone about it in a way I've never seen. He's just an amazing guy.

"Who wouldn't want the coach to come back?"

At the very least, it could take a big jump in pay from Mercury owner Robert Sarver to keep Westhead from jumping back into the NBA. The Mercury picked up an option for a third year on Westhead's contract before the WNBA finals began on Sept. 5.

"Hey, you know, Sarver has a lot of money," Taurasi said. "But I don't know if he wants to make him the highest-paid WNBA coach in the history of the world. We'd love to have coach. But if . . . he does go, and we sent him out on top, I think it means a lot to him and us."

If Westhead moves to the Sonics, the immediate question for Meyers Drysdale is his successor. His fast-break style is unprecedented in women's basketball. In the WNBA, nobody before Westhead tried it, much less made it work. Now that it has, there are questions about whether the Mercury would want to bring in a coach who would start over with a more traditional philosophy.

If Meyers Drysdale keeps the roster intact, the same style seems to make sense. If Westhead joins Carlesimo's staff, she might turn to one of Westhead's three assistants — Corey Gaines, Julie Brase and Bridget Pettis.

Meyers Drysdale sounded confident after the Mercury beat the Detroit Shock 108-92 that she would be able to keep most of a championship roster intact.

The Mercury retain the right of first refusal on players, including Taurasi, whose contracts ended after Sunday's final game, Meyers Drysdale said.

The biggest unknown surrounds Australians Penny Taylor, an All-Star forward, and Belinda Snell. Snell, Taylor and the rest of the Australians in the WNBA might decide to stay with their national team as it prepares for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The Australians won the World Championships last year with Taylor leading the way.

The Aussies figure to be the gold-medal favorite. They might want to improve their chances at the gold by staying together as one team in the months before the Olympics, scheduled to begin Aug. 8. That would mean they would miss the WNBA season in May, June and July.

The WNBA has yet to announce its 2008 schedule. In 2004, it built a break into the season for the Athens Olympics.

Taylor remembers that former Mercury General Manager Seth Sulka did much of the work in putting together the team's championship roster. Sulka resigned a year ago.

"Diana and I were here from four years ago, and it had a lot to do with Seth," Taylor said. "He's the reason I'm in Phoenix and the reason a lot of us are here. Quietly, we really thank him."