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The beauty of the Indiana Fever’s successful 2025 WNBA season was that they had to rely on a plethora of players to make as far as they did.
This reliance on so many players wasn’t ideal, of course, given that it was the byproduct of an insane amount of injuries to several key players, including Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Sydney Colson. But the bottom line is that the roster did step up, which is how Indiana came just one overtime away from advancing to the 2025 WNBA Finals, despite not having many of their best players on the court.
If the Fever’s roster were to remain the same from what it is right now heading into the 2026 season, most would agree that the team’s six top players are Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull, Sophie Cunningham, and Natasha Howard.
But there’s a very small chance that the roster will remain the same.
For one, every one of these players aside from Clark and Boston is going to become a free agent, as will almost every other WNBA veteran. This is sure to mean that many players will be changing teams, assuming that a new CBA is ratified in time for there to be a 2026 season.
And that’s not the only way rosters are sure to change this offseason.
WNBA Expansion Drafts Could Mean Fever Lose Major Piece
Two teams are entering the WNBA next season: the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. Fans will remember that before the Golden State Valkyries entered the WNBA in 2025, they had an expansion draft in December, where they could pluck up to one player from each current WNBA team’s roster.
Because of this, each of the 12 existing WNBA teams could protect six players that the Valkyries couldn’t select. The protected players each team chose weren’t made public, but most felt like the Fever would protect Clark, Boston, Mitchell, Hull, NaLyssa Smith, and one other player.
Some thought that the sixth player would be Temi Fagbenle, but that’s who the Valkyries ultimately selected, proving the Fever didn’t protect her.
Temi Fagbenle has been selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the 2025 WNBA Expansion Draft.
thank you, Temi ♥️ pic.twitter.com/rrpK2lQLpJ
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) December 6, 2024
A November 19 article from ESPN wrote, “Since this [2025] expansion draft will have two teams building rosters, it’s thought that perhaps the league’s other teams might only be able to protect five players this time.”
If this is accurate, then one of the aforementioned six Fever players (Clark, Boston, Mitchell, Hull, Cunningham, and Howard) would be forced to leave the team this winter.
There’s no chance the Fever would risk losing Clark, Boston, or Mitchell. And one would imagine that Hull and Cunningham would be their next players to protect.
This could mean that Natasha Howard’s time with the Fever has come to an end, regardless of what she was to do in free agency.
