UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Indiana Fever started their season coming up short against the Connecticut Sun. In the aftermath of that May opening-night defeat, they acknowledged their young roster — even if led by a phenom at point guard and the reigning Rookie of the Year in the post — had some learning to do when it came to winning in the WNBA.
After four years of playing a specific style at Iowa, Caitlin Clark had to figure out how to run a new offensive system. Everyone else had to learn how to play off of her: Aliyah Boston would have to make decisions out of the short roll, Kelsey Mitchell would have the ball in her hands less. All of the Fever players would have to run. A lot.
After a 2-9 start, Indiana made quick progress on those fronts. The Fever won seven more games than last season, breaking a seven-year playoff drought. They finished in the top half of league standings and were a trendy pick to upset Connecticut in the first round, or at least take a game from the Sun.
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From shaky start to playoff bound, how Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever revived their season
Instead, Indiana once again exited Connecticut acutely aware of the gap between itself and the league’s top tier after being swept in two games. Four months after her welcome-to-the-WNBA moment, Clark and her teammates got another lesson in postseason execution, one that they’ll have to sit with during the offseason as they continue their franchise rebuild.
“When you’re looking at a rebuild year, everyone wants to obviously jump to the championships and bring home the ring and everything,” Boston said. “But I think when you look at basketball as a whole and when you look at where you start to where you are now, it’s about stepping stones.”
The most critical part of the Fever’s rebuild is over: They have accumulated their star talent. What comes next?
When Lin Dunn returned to Indiana as the interim general manager in 2022, she set a three-year timeline for the Fever to return to the postseason. Coach Christie Sides thought it would take an additional season when she signed on in 2023, but drafting Boston and Clark kept Dunn’s plan in motion. The Fever got to the playoffs in her third season at the helm, and now they move on to the next phase.
That means playing for championships, Dunn said.
The 2024 season proved that Clark and Boston can be foundational pieces on a title team, but their internal improvement will be key for Indiana’s progress.
Clark got stronger as the year wore on, making her a more effective shooter and driver. However, she was still too reliant on her 3-point shot against better defenses. Of her 40 shot attempts against Connecticut, 25 came from beyond the arc, despite limited success (20 percent). She struggled similarly in a two-game set against the Aces earlier this month, shooting 3 of 18. Clark needs to diversify her shot diet to maintain her efficiency when competition increases.
Defense also needs to become more of a focus for Clark. She had multiple lapses against Marina Mabrey in Game 1, and the Fever once again spoke about miscues down the stretch of the elimination game. Perhaps better conditioning, and more time off before the 2025 season, will enable Clark to play harder on both ends, considering how the Olympic break supercharged her performance in the second half of 2024. But she needs to impact the game as a two-way player for Indiana to take the next step forward.
Although ESPN reported that Clark wasn’t planning on playing overseas, she said she hasn’t yet made that decision. She plans to take a couple weeks off before resuming basketball activities, only jokingly committing to playing a lot of golf in the near future. At the moment, Clark isn’t attached to any non-WNBA leagues, including the new upcoming three-on-three league Unrivaled. Dunn said she’d like to see Clark play some additional five-on-five before her sophomore WNBA season.
What a rookie season for Caitlin Clark 👏
🏀 2024 WNBA All-Star
🏀 2024 WNBA assists leader
🏀 Led Indiana to their first playoff appearance in 8 years
🏀 19.2 PPG
🏀 8.4 APG
🏀 5.7 RPG pic.twitter.com/921IzxXnyD— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 26, 2024
With their abundance of young talent, Sides said Indiana has everything it needs to get to the next level, the first-round exit exposed some gaps in the roster’s construction – chief among them, experience.
“We met a veteran team in their home arena that had enormous playoff experience and we didn’t,” Dunn said. “So now we’ve had some, and let’s see how we respond to that. There’s no way you can talk about what it’s like, you just have to experience it. And It sends another message that as we move forward in free agency, we need to get some veterans that have played for championships.”
When the Seattle Storm won two titles after drafting Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd with the top pick in consecutive years, they had Sue Bird — already a two-time champ — leading them. The Aces had three No. 1 picks from 2017-19, but Las Vegas still needed the veteran hand of Chelsea Gray, and then Candace Parker, to get over the hump.
The Fever don’t necessarily require a starting point guard with Clark around, but a veteran who can take some pressure off of Clark in the second unit and play next to her at times to push her off the ball would be a smart addition. Perhaps Courtney Vandersloot, currently marginalized in New York with the Liberty playing bigger lineups, would want to spend some of the twilight of her career in Indiana. Vandersloot, who won the 2021 championship with the Sky, is the consummate floor general who could help Clark grow as a point guard and guide the other Fever youngsters.
If Indiana wants to go all-in offensively, Kelsey Plum is an upcoming free agent, which would bring three of the top four leading scorers in women’s college basketball history together. That lineup would likely be too small and flammable defensively, but the Fever should dream big this offseason now that they have established a proof of concept.
Indiana also needs to resolve its frontcourt dilemma. Despite starting the season touting the pairing of Boston with fellow lottery pick NaLyssa Smith, in the biggest games of the year, Smith was glued to the bench, even falling out of the starting lineup in Game 2. The Fever favored putting a spacing big next to Boston, whether that was Damiris Dantas or Temi Fagbenle, and Connecticut coach Stephanie White was quick to bring up the challenges of defending Indiana when it played a lineup with five players who could space the floor.
The Fever likely won’t be able to protect all of their regular starters (Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull, Smith and Boston) plus Fagbenle and Dantas in the upcoming expansion draft, meaning an inflection point is arriving shortly. If Indiana doesn’t think it can maximize Smith’s skill set while building a team around its All-Star trio of Clark, Mitchell and Boston, this is the time to move on, especially while her rookie contract is still a tradeable asset.
NaLyssa Smith’s future is not assured to be in Indiana. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today Sports via Imagn Images)
The organization realizes the imperative of capitalizing on this window, even though Clark and Boston likely have many great years ahead of them. The Fever just hired former GM Kelly Krauskopf to return to Indiana as the president of basketball and business operations. Dunn highlighted the need for “great leadership” at this unprecedented moment for the WNBA, especially with a new media rights deal and potential new CBA on the horizon. The front office needed more support to actualize the next step of its rebuild, and that help is on the way.
To compete for titles, Indiana needs to behave like one from the top down. Learning how to execute in the last two minutes of an elimination game is one piece of the puzzle, but being a franchise that invests throughout is another crucial element in the ever-escalating WNBA arms race.
The Fever’s 2024 season has to be categorized as a success considering the gains they made in their business and on the court. Indiana is a feared opponent for the first time in nearly a decade and the stars feel like they are just scratching the surface of what they can become.
“It was special,” Clark said. “There was a lot of things that this group accomplished that a lot of people probably didn’t think was possible, one, to start the season, and two, after the start we had to the season. … It’s a good little taste of what’s possible for this organization and for this franchise, and there’s a lot for us to hold our heads high about.”
The honeymoon phase won’t last forever. The timeline moves on. At this point next year, the Fever want to be where the Sun are, protecting their home court instead of rueing ending their season on the road and winning a playoff series for the first time in 10 seasons. Anything is in play for Indiana, but the real work begins now.
(Photo of Aliyah Boston, left, and Caitlin Clark: Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)