As the Paris Olympics are taking place, the Indiana Fever WNBA team is taking a well-earned breather from the intensity of the 40-game regular season.
Since the league draft took place in April and the season started in May, now is a good moment to take stock of the state’s showcase women’s basketball team.
From the perspective of report cards, it is difficult to assign marks to the Fever in some areas while it is quite simple to issue grades in other areas using the standard A, B, and C grading system.
The Fever have, in a sense, been the WNBA sensation of the past 25 years. The Fever is still very much a work in progress in other aspects.
DRAFT. Choosing Iowa guard Caitlin Clark with the first overall draft pick is commendable for the Fever. Without a question, Clark is the best choice both now and in the future. She is a crowd-pleaser, a starting point guard with exceptional floor vision, a transformative player, and an All-Star in her debut season.
ATTENDANCE FROM HOME. A+. Nearly all of the Fever’s games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse have sold out, with attendance regularly reaching 17,274, surpassing previous year’s figures.
A-plus road attendance. The hosts of Clark and the Fever always sell out the arena when they perform, sometimes for the first time in years or almost always.
Products: A-plus. Fans in the stands just kept buying Fever merchandise and Caitlin Clark No. 22 shirts. When choosing clothes for one’s wardrobe, it is as though the team store has taken the place of every other retailer.
RECORD: C-plus. The team started the season with a 1-8 record, apparently overwhelmed by the difficult schedule, but by the half, the Fever had improved to 11-15. While no one expected a lottery team to jump to the top of the standings right away, it is still feasible to achieve the stated objective of making the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
B-plus for resilience. The Fever have shown enough guts to fight back and pull off the kind of comebacks that may ultimately stun opponents, with rare exceptions in recent games.
DEFENSE: C. The Fever’s defense has seen significant, protracted lapses, allowing opposing teams to score freely and breach the defense. To become a regular winner, the Fever need to stop those walkabouts.
OFFENSE: B-minus. The Fever occasionally seem to be able to score on anyone, at any moment. Running the offense and pushing the ball on the fast-break are two of Clark’s strongest suit. She will locate a colleague if they are available. More uniformity is still required throughout complete games. It will not do to play well for one or two quarters.
B-minus is the starting lineup. Clark, center Aliyah Boston, guard Kelsey Mitchell (all three are all-stars), and forward NaLyssa Smith are the Fever’s four double-figure scorers on average. The firepower then becomes less effective. Katie Lou Samuelson, the fifth starter, is not always explosive.
DEPTH: negative C. Christie Sides, the coach, hardly ever looks to the bench to find someone to start a game. There are a lot of situational substitutions. Lexie Hull has developed into a reliable guard on defense. Arriving late from Brazil, Damiris Dantas has shown some spark; in fact, his presence to the team forced the removal of Celeste Taylor, a second-round pick. Victaria Sexton and local favorite Grace Berger, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft and a former Indiana University great, never leave the bench.
Protect It appears that Erica Wheeler has lost her flare for scoring. Although she is not starting right now, guard Kristy Wallace is still a part of Australia’s Olympic squad. Temi Fagbenle, a frontcourt player, is the X factor. Despite her two injuries, her scoring and rebounding could be important for the remainder of the season provided she stays healthy.
B+ for CAITLIN CLARK. A great success in terms of money is one way to look at the Caitlin Clark Effect. Impact on the court is the alternative method. With her excellent scoring and long-range shooting, Clark established herself as a college star. Even though she is still scoring points (17.1 per game), her accuracy has been poor, which has made her less intimidating from a distance. Nevertheless, she leads the WNBA in assists, which has earned her the respect of her Fever colleagues.
Clark will probably soon increase that B-plus to an A-plus if she can overcome her shooting slump.
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A-minus for coaching. The second-year Fever coach Christie Sides has taken a beating from offensive remarks made on social media. Within two weeks of the season’s premiere, there were calls for her dismissal. It was wacky and extreme. She assured everyone that the team will get better with practice and under a less demanding schedule, and both predictions have come to pass.
REST OF SEASON: If the Fever make it to the playoffs and the young players keep getting better, the 2024 campaign will be considered a success. They need to play more consistently than they did prior to the Olympic break in order to achieve this. An honor roll grade is not possible with a record below.500 until then.
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