WNBA: Indiana Fever needed addition of Caitlin Clark, but also others

When I started covering the WNBA, it was 2012. I just covered a couple of Washington Mystics games for a website called DC Sports Box, so I wasn’t extensively covering the entire league. But I knew who Maya Moore was. A couple years earlier, 2010, was my first time supporting the women’s basketball team at the school I actually attended (Maryland), and I was disappointed that we missed the NCAA Tournament, while Moore’s UConn was simply in a class of its own, going 39-0 and winning the second of back-to-back national championships. I knew that Moore had teamed up with Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson on the Minnesota Lynx and won the 2011 WNBA championship. And I knew from my limited coverage of the league in 2012 that the Lynx were heavy favorites to repeat.

But when I became a Swish Appeal writer in 2013 and the calendar turned to June, it wasn’t the Minnesota Lynx I was asked to cover at the White House; it was the Indiana Fever.

The great Tamika Catchings had done the improbable: She led the Fever to a WNBA Finals upset of Moore and the Lynx, and it didn’t even take her five games. In the Fever’s eighth-straight season of making the playoffs, a stretch that included two Finals appearances and five semifinal appearances, they solidified their legacy with a championship. That championship and the surrounding deep playoff runs continue to bring pride to the franchise and give the current team a legacy to look back on that they now aim to recreate.

After 2012, Indiana extended its playoff streak to 12-straight seasons, including three Finals appearances, eight semifinal appearances and the one championship. 2016 was Catchings’ final season in the WNBA (all were played with the Fever) and marks the last time the Fever made the playoffs before clinching a return this season. Catchings was ranked the second-best player in WNBA history in 2021, and remained at No. 2 in 2024 when ESPN adjusted its list to include only players from the new millennium.

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Yet, as she wraps up her first WNBA regular season, Caitlin Clark is already more famous than Catchings. She’s more famous than any woman’s basketball player to ever live.

When the Fever drafted her at No. 1 in this year’s draft, they inherited countless Clark fanatics, many of whom have been tuning into the women’s game for the first time because of her. Those many who were new to the game did not know the history of the Fever from the 2016 playoff exit to the 2024 draft. All they knew was that Clark was hyped up as the greatest college player of all time (Breanna Stewart has something to say about that) and they thus expected the Fever to be a great team.

Fortunately for Indiana, it had the pieces in place it needed to not let these new fans down.

The Fever didn’t have a first round draft pick in 2017; their first lottery selection post-Catchings came in the form of 2018’s No. 2 pick: Kelsey Mitchell of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Those who currently follow the Fever know that Mitchell has been just as important in the scoring department as Clark this season, currently leading the team with 19.3 points per game (0.2 ahead of Clark). In the craze over Clark, and to a lesser degree Aliyah Boston (the hyped No. 1 pick of 2023), the greatness of Mitchell as a college player has been lost. As a fan of the Maryland Terrapins, I know how dominating Mitchell was in the Big Ten, so let me remind you that she finished her career second on the all-time NCAA Division I scoring list, behind only Kelsey Plum. She’s now fourth behind Clark, Plum and Dyaisha Fair.

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As great as she is though, Mitchell didn’t find team success at the professional level until this season. Indiana missed the playoffs all six years from 2018 to 2023, and half of the time during that stretch they were the worst team in the league. The Fever were desperately searching for talent to surround Mitchell the whole time.

In 2019, Indiana general manager Pokey Chatman selected 6-foot-7 Teaira McCowan with the No. 3 pick in the draft. McCowan served the Fever well, averaging nearly a double-double in points and rebounds all three years she was with the team. However, she is no longer part of Indiana’s story, as she has taken those consistent numbers to Dallas. In 2020, the face of the franchise’s history, Catchings, took over as general manager. She selected Baylor’s Lauren Cox with the No. 3 pick that year; Cox averaged 3.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.1 minutes per game as a rookie. She split 2021 between Indiana and LA, putting up low numbers again. She is no longer in the WNBA, instead playing for Virtus Bologna in Italy.

Catchings could never lose her standing as one of the most respected and adored individuals not only in Fever history, but also in WNBA history. But her general managing left something to be desired. In 2021, she shocked the women’s basketball community by selecting Kysre Gondrezick of the West Virginia Mountaineers with the No. 4 pick in the draft. Swish Appeal had projected Gondrezick at No. 17 and ESPN had projected her at No. 29. Not a bad pick if it works out, but Gondrezick averaged 1.9 points in 9.1 minutes as a rookie. She was out of the league in 2022 and 2023, and appeared in just five games for the Chicago Sky this season.

Catchings was bailed out by none other than the coach who helped her win the 2012 championship: Lin Dunn. Dunn deserves the credit for building the Fever into the playoff team they are today. Though most of her draft decisions have been easy (NaLyssa Smith at No. 2 in 2022, Boston at No. 1 in 2023 and Clark at No. 1 in 2024), her selection of Stanford 3-and-D star Lexie Hull at No. 6 in 2022 was about as shocking as the selection of Gondrezick at No. 4, and it was a gamble that has paid off.

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Just five days before the 2022 draft, ESPN’s Michael Voepel was wondering if Smith might go No. 1, so she was certainly considered a great No. 2 pick at the time. She shone brightest last season with 15.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. She’s seen 3.5 minutes shaved off her playing time and five points shaved off her scoring average with the addition of Clark, but is a great fourth-best player. The Fever really do have a “Big 4.:

The gamble on Hull didn’t pay off at first, as she shot 20.4 percent from beyond the arc over her first two seasons. Her incredible turnaround this season has been something to behold: Entering Friday night, she was leading the league with a 49.3 shooting percentage from downtown. Now she sits at 48.5 percentage en route to 5.6 points per game in 19.4 minutes. Not the high end of what a No. 6 pick can be, but a key X-factor for sure.

Boston’s hype never reached the level of Clark’s, but it was comparable to some other pretty notable college players who have gone on to become WNBA legends. She debuted with the second-best rookie field goal percentage in league history (57.8) and has made the All-Star Game in each of her first two seasons. The year Smith was added, the Fever’s winning percentage actually dropped by .049 percentage points. Boston is the player who truly kicked Indiana into gear, allowing their winning percentage to improve by .186 over their 2022 mark and finish ahead of two teams, as opposed to eight games out of 11th place.

And then there’s Clark. On Wednesday, Voepel ranked Clark’s rookie season third all time. At 19.1 points, 8.4 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game, she already is the best player on the Fever and the sixth-best player in the entire league, the latter according to Mark Schindler of WNBA.com’s latest KIA 2024 MVP Ladder. Friday night she added to her list of accomplishments by setting the WNBA single-season assists record. She already had set the single-game record of 19 on July 17 (Courtney Vandersloot, the previous record holder, was a seasoned veteran in her 10th season when she dished out 18). She has brought with her sold-out crowds and the utmost excitement surrounding Fever basketball.

But Clark has also brought a winning percentage improvement of .175 (currently), which is actually slightly lower than what Boston brought—interesting to note. It’s important to remember what the Fever have been through to get to this point and all the pieces besides Clark that have built this playoff team.

Mitchell in particular deserves a lot of credit for always showing up for the media and the Indianapolis community, and displaying the utmost class through those losing years. She is now a deserving two-time All-Star, receiving the honor this season and last. She hasn’t drifted into the shadows behind Clark’s stardom, instead arguably shining her brightest with Clark at her side. She’s registering career bests in points and 3-pointers made per game, as well as field goal percentage, while recording a career-low in turnovers per game.

The Fever are not only going to make the playoffs, but will be a scary first-round opponent for whoever they play (likely Connecticut or Minnesota). But if they advance, it won’t be all about Clark. They must hope that all of their key pieces shine brightest with Clark at their side.