I’m positive that by now, everyone has witnessed Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in action. How could you not? Even the most casual sports fan can’t miss the impact Clark has on her sport. I say “her sport” because it is her sport right now, and everybody else is just playing in it.
It’s being called the Caitlin Clark Effect, much like the Michael Jordan Effect and the Larry Bird Effect. Whatever you call it, Clark reigns supreme in the public/media eye for now. And why not? There is even a name for the increased revenue she’s brought the WNBA— Caitlin-nomics.
Opponents love to see her come to town because their arenas sell out. Courtside seats cost in the thousands. Las Vegas set a new attendance record of 22,000 to watch Clark and the Fever get blown out by 20.
She is setting rookie records weekly and recently recorded the first ever triple-double for a rookie in a July home win over the mighty New York Liberty. The Fever were on a roll leading up to the break in their season for the Olympics. Clark led all players in fan votes (700,735) for the All-Star team. Teammate Aliyah Boston came in second (618,680).
But despite all Clark’s accolades, records, interviews, commercials, and shoe deals, one player does not a team make. Other Fever players are present on the court and, despite their lack of publicity, form the core of this WNBA team.
So, let’s start with fellow All-Star Boston. She is the Fever’s original building block. Her talent gave the fledgling team credibility during last year’s late-season push, and now her play contributes a solid inside presence and defensive stability.
The more I watch her and Clark work together on the pick and roll, with Clark dumping down to a rolling Boston for an easy deuce, I see why Boston was a No. 1 draft pick, a collegiate All-American selection, and Player of the Year when she was with the University of South Carolina. She is a powerhouse.
She’s much more effective scoring off the dribble, attacking her defender, rather than off the block. Plus, when given the time to line her feet up, she’s a capable 3-point shooter, at 40 percent, and is nearly a 50-percent shooter from the field. She’s not an automatic double-double yet but is working her way there quickly.
Then there is the third Fever All-Star, point guard Kelsey Mitchell, an exceptional scorer to say the least. This Ohio State grad and second overall pick by the Fever in the 2019 draft is a tough, gritty player who can fill up the hoop quickly. She came into this season as third in franchise history in points scored, third in field goals made, and second in 3-point field goals made.
Her outside prowess allows her to drive to the basket with ease, in part because of her ball-handling skills. In a recent road win, she singlehandedly brought the Fever back from the jaws of defeat by popping in 16 points in the second half after going scoreless in the first half. She raised her 3-point shooting from 40.5 percent to over 51 percent while leading the Fever in scoring at 16.6 PPG.
NaLyssa Smith was a 2022 No. 2 selection and lived up to the pick by making the All-Rookie team. She also participated in the WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge, averaging 13.5 points and 7.9 rebounds. She shot 41.9 percent from the field in the 22 games she started in as a rookie.
Smith is flourishing in her role as the team’s blue-collar worker. She’s a “do whatever it takes for the team to win” kind of player, which is a valuable commodity for any squad, currently pulling down eight rebounds per game and disrupting opponents’ inside plans with her defense.
Watching her play and on-court interactions with her teammates improve as the season progresses has been compelling; she has an uncanny ability to shed her defensive person and get “lost” in the offense, only to pop down the lane wide open for a pass from Clark and an easy two. Smith is also scoring well this season, averaging over 11 points per game and 1.3 assists.
Coming off the bench is veteran forward Katie Lou Samuelson, the 2019 fourth overall pick by the Chicago Sky. She has a well-traveled career so far, with the Fever being her fifth WNBA team. She plays over 18 minutes per contest, and she brings a calm experience to the lineup. She’s not a big scorer anymore (5 PPG), but she certainly was a scorer when she played for UConn.
Erica Wheeler is another savvy veteran off the bench. Originally undrafted out of Rutgers, Wheeler is in her second stint with Indiana after playing elsewhere for two seasons. Her assist to turnover ratio is nearly 2 to 1, and she shoots a high percentage (88.9 percent) from the charity stripe, which increases her value in late-game situations.
Moving on to guard Lexie Hull, the sixth pick in the 2022 draft. Now in her third season with the Fever, Hull played in 26 games her rookie season and prior to that was a pivotal member of the 2021 Stanford national championship team. Her emphasis this season is on defense, but she is a more than capable ball handler when Mitchell and Clark are on the bench.
For some local talent, Grace Berger, the seventh overall pick in 2023 out of Indiana, is coming on strong. The four-time All-Big Ten selection is averaging just less than 4 points per game so far and grabbing two rebounds per contest.
As one can see by looking at the draft positions of the Fever roster over the past four years, this team is jam-packed with youthful talent, and it is just a matter of time before they begin to win more consistently.
The victory over the Liberty recently provided a key win over one of the WNBA’s elite teams. As it stands now, that home win was only the second over a team with a winning record.
Caitlin Clark will be Caitlin Clark. She’ll get what she’ll get and set records in the process. But for the Fever to attain greatness—which is within their grasp—the players behind the player that propelled them to being a household name must also be pretty darn talent. And lest we forget, they are.
