INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark stayed comparatively quiet because the Indiana Fever launched into a significant low season overhaul.
Stephanie White took over as coach. Amber Cox turned basic supervisor. The development of a brand new apply facility was introduced. After which the franchise introduced in WNBA champs DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard.
The group welcomed Bonner on Monday, and Clark was there to provide a ringing endorsement of the low season strikes.
“They know what it takes to win, they know what it takes to get to the Finals, they know what it takes to win championships,” Clark mentioned, referring to the newcomers. “I believe it’s precisely what we wanted in our locker room. But additionally they’re not simply actually good basketball gamers, they’re nice leaders and nice individuals and I do know the entrance workplace prioritized that.”
Make no mistake, Clark nonetheless runs this group on the courtroom.
In a historic season that featured the league’s Rookie of the 12 months breaking the WNBA’s single-season mark for assists, taking part in routinely in entrance of sellout crowds and drawing report tv rankings, the previous Iowa star performed a pivotal position in serving to the Fever snap a seven-year post-season drought whereas additionally bringing the franchise again to nationwide prominence.
And with All-Star capturing guard Kelsey Mitchell and All-Star ahead Aliyah Boston, the 2023 Rookie of the 12 months, each again subsequent season, Clark thinks the Fever might take one other gigantic leap ahead in 2025 and believes the newcomers see it, too.
“That is the franchise of all ladies’s sports activities, I say, it doesn’t matter what sport it’s,” she mentioned. “They see the kind of crowds we get, the joy we’re producing not solely in Indiana however all throughout the nation. I believe the following few years are going to be superb for this franchise and can proceed to be for, hopefully, the following 10 years. Hopefully, we win a number of championships.”
The very fact is Indiana has largely crammed one evident omission from final yr — post-season expertise.
Final week, the Fever re-introduced Howard, a two-time All-Star and three-time league champ, to the franchise that originally drafted the ahead No. 5 general in 2014.
Bonner, the six-time All-Star and two-time league champ who wants seven factors to surpass Tina Thompson for No. 3 on the WNBA’s profession scoring record, labored out with Clark previous to her introductory information convention.
Clark then attended the occasion and although she wasn’t scheduled to talk, did anyway.
“I believe will probably be a variety of enjoyable to get within the health club and be with my teammates and simply begin placing the items collectively and see what works or what does not,” Clark mentioned. “However I believe we’ll have a variety of completely different choices to do a variety of various things. I believe that is what’s tremendous thrilling.”
Bonner, in the meantime, will put on No. 25 as a substitute of her conventional No. 24 as a result of that quantity has been retired by the Fever in honour of Corridor of Famer Tamika Catchings. Now Bonner can concentrate on teaming up with Clark and Boston on the courtroom whereas serving to mentor them into championship gamers within the locker room.
Clark and Bonner did cross paths in a single notable change final yr once they had been concerned in a short scuffle in the course of the second and ultimate recreation of a playoff sequence.
“I believe it was simply two aggressive gamers who needed to win and push their groups to get to the end line,” Bonner mentioned. “It is the playoffs so feelings are excessive, tensions are excessive, however I am excited to step on the courtroom with Caitlin. I believe we simply feed properly off of one another.”
That is actually the plan as Indiana continues to fine-tune its roster.
Workforce officers additionally introduced final week that that they had signed free agent guard Sydney Colson, a two-time league champ, and bought guard Sophie Cunningham from Phoenix in a four-team deal that price Indiana beginning ahead NaLyssa Smith.
Indiana additionally waived former draft picks Grace Berger and Victaria Saxton, and group officers introduced they and ahead Katie Lou Samuelson mutually agreed to half methods.
White, Cox and president of basketball and enterprise operations Kelly Krauskopf have not mentioned but whether or not they’re completed making strikes earlier than the WNBA draft in April.
Even when they do not, Clark and Bonner every imagine this model of the Fever can contend for a title — and that is why the free brokers joined the Fever.
“A dynamic level guard can put you in place to attain simply and I believe taking part in with Kelsey and A.B. (Boston), it is simply going to be straightforward to attain,” Bonner mentioned, earlier than speaking in regards to the crowd on the information convention. “I walked in, I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know if I’ve ever been in entrance of this many media individuals.’ Hopefully, I can put out the product everybody deserves right here.”
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