Caitlin Clark injury: Fever coach explains how WNBA star can use absence as ‘opportunity for growth’

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been diagnosed with a left quad strain, the team announced Monday. The injury, which will sideline Clark for a minimum of two weeks, is new territory for the previously indestructible point guard. 

When Clark sits out of the Fever’s matchup with the Washington Mystics on Wednesday, it will be the first game she has missed since high school. Dating back to her freshman year of college at Iowa, she had played in 185 consecutive games with the Hawkeyes and Fever. 

While Fever coach Stephanie White would obviously prefer that Clark’s ironwoman streak wasn’t coming to an end, she hopes that her floor general will be able to use the time off as an “opportunity for growth.” 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Caitlin to watch the game from the sideline, to grow in a coaching kind of mindset,” White told reporters after practice on Monday. “And see some different things that we might be talking about on film, addressing in practice — to see it develop in live action. 

“As players you see [the game] in a micro viewpoint, and when you’re on the sideline and you’re watching it as a whole, you get to see it a different way from a macro viewpoint. I think it’s gonna give her a unique perspective, and she’s gonna come back better and it’s gonna help us be better.”

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Clark established herself as one of the best players in the league by the middle of her rookie season, but while she appears to be on all-time great trajectory, she still has a lot of room to improve. 

The most obvious way that Clark could grow from watching the game on the sideline is with her decision-making. She is a brilliant playmaker, but gets too ambitious at times, which can lead to a lot of turnovers. Her 223 turnovers in her rookie campaign were a single-season record, and she had 10 turnovers in the Fever’s recent loss to the New York Liberty. 

“It is great to grow when you’re on the floor, but you also see the game at different levels when you’re not on the floor,” White said. “You see it at one level or two levels when you’re on the floor, and you often [equate] it to being in a coach’s mindset, being in a coach’s viewpoint. Listening to us and our conversations, whether it’s in practice or on the sidelines, talking about what our emphasis is, what we’re looking for, and you see it from a different perspective.”

Clark’s court vision and passing accuracy are top notch, and her willingness to attempt home run plays is a big part of what makes her so special. White and the Fever won’t want to stifle Clark’s creativity, but they will want her to take better care of the ball. 

If Clark can do that, both she and the Fever will be even better when she returns.