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The Indiana Fever arguably had some of the best offseason moves of any team in the WNBA. Signing Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner in free agency and trading for Sophie Cunningham screamed “win now” moves for a franchise that’s right on the cusp of building a contender around Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston.
Those two specifically have become the perfect foundation for the Fever to build off of, as finding a guard and post player with as good of chemistry as Clark and Boston have is hard in today’s WNBA.
And, as ESPN’s Michael Voepel details, it’s the kind of foundation that championships have been built off of in pretty recent memory.
“Now, despite how young their stars are, the Fever are on the clock. Some teams in professional sports ascend to the top with long builds, but a common mentality among ownership and front offices now is to take a chance when it presents itself. The precedents in the WNBA are the Seattle Storm and Las Vegas Aces. The Storm had back-to-back No. 1 picks in 2001 (Lauren Jackson) and 2002 (Sue Bird), then won a championship in 2004. They were still together for a 2010 title. Then it happened again for the Storm with Jewell Loyd in 2015 and Breanna Stewart in 2016, followed by a championship in 2018. The Storm won again in 2020.”
–Â ESPN’s Michael Voepel
READ MORE: Caitlin Clark’s former teammate Erica Wheeler has heartwarming reaction to win
He added the most recent example of this success being the Las Vegas Aces. They had back to back to back first overall picks that became A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young. We know how that core did eventually – back to back championships in 2022 and 2023.
Indiana is clearly looking to replicate that success – using the young talent they have in Boston and Clark and also amplifying it with key offseason additions that help to steer the ship with their own championship experience.
Voepel details in this piece how the Fever’s veterans are adding a positive environment to an Indiana locker room that could very well be going stir crazy right about now, awaiting the return of Clark and Cunningham while trying to survive a stretch of games between the Atlanta Dream and the New York Liberty – the first of which they already dropped.
“We’re preparing ourselves for September and October,. If we can go through this stuff now to prepare for that, it’s good. There are times it’s not fun, but we’re all willing to stay in it, stay focused and just understand it’s part of the process,” said Hull to Voepel about how the team has been taking their sudden adversity on the chin – a very veteran and experienced response.
