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Alexa Philippou
INDIANAPOLIS — All eyes are on the Indiana Fever entering the WNBA season, a year after No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark supercharged the organization from an afterthought to a surging franchise with championship potential.
But expectations for the Fever are just as high internally. When asked Wednesday at media day what success would look like this season, Clark answered unequivocally: “A championship.”
The Fever (+350) are tied with the Las Vegas Aces for the second-best odds to win this year’s title behind the reigning champion New York Liberty (+230).
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That’s quite a jump for an Indiana squad that went 20-20 last season and made its first playoff appearance since 2016.
But this year’s Fever look quite different after bringing in veterans with championship experience, a group headlined by DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard. Those newcomers complement the team’s young core of Clark and fellow former No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, plus 2018 No. 2 pick Kelsey Mitchell.
“We do talk about [winning a championship],” Howard said, “but our main thing right now is to get the team chemistry together and just win games, day by day learn and just get better.”
The Fever entered the postseason last year without any playoff experience among their starters. They were swept in the first round by the Connecticut Sun. Clark said Wednesday the experience of competing at that level was something the team was sorely missing.
This new-look group might not have postseason experience together, but Howard won two titles with Seattle and one with Minnesota, Bonner two with Phoenix and Sydney Colson two with Las Vegas.
“I think everybody had their own different challenges at different points in their career, and we’re just trying to bring it together,” Bonner said. “What’s the point of putting this roster together if you’re not going to compete for a championship?”
That shared desire to win in Indiana was something Bonner saw as a free agent when deciding on where to play. Bonner says she doesn’t know if she has been on a team across her 15 years in the WNBA with so much firepower.
“I think we have a great group of ladies who understand that [sacrifices have to be made] and they just simply want to win and take this franchise to a different level than what they were last year in the playoffs,” Bonner said.
The franchise isn’t lacking in championship pedigree either, as the team won its first and only title in 2012, when current coach Stephanie White was an assistant and the team was led by WNBA legend Tamika Catchings.
“Listen, we’re in this to win championships,” general manager Amber Cox said. “We want that to be the standard. That is the standard that has been set here in Indiana with Tamika Catchings and championships in the past. We want to get back to that, that’s the goal.”
But the message throughout the first few days of training camp is that it will be a learning process to get there. Not only do the Fever have more newcomers than returners, but everyone will be adjusting to White, her staff and her system in the coach’s first season back in Indianapolis.
But White has frequently said she believes the Fever team that takes the court in September and October will be much different than the one that kicks off its preseason slate this weekend.
“I know everybody expects us to compete for a championship in May. Well, that’s not realistic,” White said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re taking our daily steps, and we’re getting better, and we’re stacking days and we put the best team and the best combinations on the floor that we can.”
Added Cox: “It doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve got a lot of work to do. It looks great on paper. We’re three days in, but [a championship] is always the expectation.”
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