The Fever didn’t expect their season to reflect on Saturday morning.
Built behind a historic offense, Indiana felt it had a real chance to make a deep playoff run. But as general manager Amber Cox said, the Aces finished the season for the second year in a row.
“That part sucks, man,” Kelsey Mitchell said. “I thought we put a lot of work into being the last few teams. It was unfortunate. It was disgusting. It hurt not to be in the last four.”
Instead of being one of the bottom four teams still playing, the Fever now head into the offseason with some of the same questions as previous years, but still in need of significant improvements.
Here are the five biggest takeaways from the team’s exit interviews.
Kelsey Mitchell is going to be “selfish.”
For the second straight offseason, Mitchell’s free agency will be “the number one priority,” head coach Stephanie White said, for the Heat. What’s different this time is that Indiana can’t land Mitchell, leaving open the possibility that he could sign with another franchise for the first time in his career.
“I’ve got to be selfish,” Mitchell said of his impending free agency. “I think it’s probably what I need in my career and what’s best for me, so I have to be selfish in that room.”
Reading between the lines, Mitchell sounded like someone who was happy to move on as he acknowledged how much the Fever meant to his career. Mitchell’s nine-year career has been played entirely in Indiana, and he’s seen his work pay off in recent seasons, including this year where he’s in the MVP conversation.
However, with the Heat facing a salary cap crisis, the extra eyes and attention that comes with playing alongside Caitlin Clark and settling for what he got with the Fever, the possibility of Mitchell leaving felt very real.
“I think it’s about figuring out what I need, figuring out what my family needs,” she said. “I’ve finally realized that I’m getting older, unfortunately I’m not getting any younger. But I’ve obviously built a Fever family here, so I guess whatever I have to talk about, I’ll pass them on.
“I think it’s too early for me to really say what I’m supposed to do, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Indiana. Everything I have is kind of instilled and everything I’ve grown is kind of Fever, and so there’s a lot to kind of hash out and figure out. But I guess TBD.”
Caitlin Clark’s EPIC extension
There wasn’t a ton of discussion about Caitlin Clark on Saturday because the morning was a bit busy in Iowa City. Koch revealed that the team plans to talk to him about an Exceptional Performance on an Initial Contract (EPIC) extension.
“I would say the other priority is getting Caitlin the opportunity to sign an EPIC extension,” Cox said. “So we’re very excited to talk to him and his team about it.”
Last season, the Fever signed Aliyah Boston to an EPIC extension, but fewer came in the first year, giving the team room to build the roster. Would Clark be willing to do something similar, potentially allowing the team to both offer Mitchell his max and add pieces to the Big 3?
Continuity with the Big 3
At this point, continuity with their stars has been repeatedly emphasized. The Fever have seen what keeping a superstar core together can do with the Aces over the past two seasons and hope to repeat that.
“We want to keep those three together,” Cox said. “I think you’ve seen in the history of the league and obviously the team we just played, that consistency is really important when you can do that and that’s how you build consistency and get to a place where you win back-to-back championships.”
Boston and Clark will be around in some form or fashion for a few years. Many of the continuity questions center around Mitchell and go back to the significance of his decision for the Fever’s season.
Aliyah Find adults around Boston
When identifying gaps on the roster, one of the biggest, figuratively and literally, was the depth of the frontcourt.
While Boston was the mainstay, the Fever went through Monique Billings, Myisha Hines-Allen and Makayla Timpson with him in the starting lineup. Only Timpson stuck around at the end of the year, though his minutes dwindled in the postseason.
So finding consistency around Boston was one area of focus for both Cox and White this offseason.
“Our frontcourt depth needs to be better,” Cox said. “I think we’ve got to look at who we put around him. It starts there… But it’s an area where we have to coast, I think, moving forward. Make sure we’ve got some depth behind AB at center or four so whatever happens, moving forward.”
Cox talked about Boston’s development as an outside shooter, as well as changing the dynamic of what the frontcourt makeup should be. This season, he shot 40.6% from the 3-point line on 2.7 attempts per game, a career year from long range.
After being a basket center entering the league, Boston’s ability to stretch the floor opens up more opportunities for bigs around him, which the front office plans to evaluate.
Defense, defense, defense
By some statistical measures, including offensive rating, the Fever had the greatest offense in WNBA history. One of the biggest reasons why they were doing exit interviews on Saturday and not preparing for the next round of the playoffs was the other end of the field.
Indiana ranked eighth in defensive rating, 11th in points allowed per game and ninth in opponent field goal percentage. By basically every metric, they were one of the worst defenses in the league.
And they knew it well.
“We have to make sure we have people on the perimeter every night who can shut down some of these elite scorers in the league, which is not easy,” Cox said.
“I thought we had moments where we did [defend well] and I think it’s just being able to have that mindset consistently,” White added. “In the old days, we had Tamika on our teams. [Catchings] which really sets this tone. We have great attacking players who set the final tone of the attack. So I think the goal is to find ways to get more consistency in both.”
As exciting as this year’s Fever were – and they were must-see TV at their best – it’s never been a title-winning approach. They know they need to be more balanced with big improvements defensively.
It will be part of many decisions, big and small, that await the Fever this offseason.