When the Indiana Fever started the season, the vibes were immaculate.
The had perhaps the biggest superstar in women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark, leading a Big 3 that included Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston. They had gone out and signed free agents DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and sharp-shooter Sophie Cunningham with the goal of making the team a championship contender.
It didn’t take long for the mood to change.
Bonner lost her starting job and fell out of the team’s regular rotation. She missed two weeks in June due to personal reasons and was released June 25 when the team was unable to find a trade partner.
Clark sustained a series of soft tissue injuries and announced Sept. 4 she would not return this season because of a left groin injury. Backup point guard Sydney Colson (torn ACL), Aari McDonald (broken foot), Cunningham (knee injury) and Chloe Bibby (knee injury) also suffered season-ending injuries.
The Fever pushed through all these obstacles to finish 24-20 and make the playoffs as the No. 6 seed. They advanced to the semifinals before being eliminated by the Las Vegas Aces 107-98 in overtime of Game 5 Tuesday in Atlanta.
“It says a lot about this group, how resilient they’ve been, how tough they’ve been, how locked in they’ve been to just putting one foot in front of the other and doing whatever is necessary to position ourselves to win ball games,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “And I think it says a lot about them that they’ve been able to bring in and we’ve been able to bring in new players, and they’ve adjusted and adapted to them.”
The Fever had nine different starting lineups and 16 players on the roster this season. Who will return in 2026? Clark, Boston and Makayla Timpson are all on rookie deals but are the only players locked in for next year. The rest of the roster, with the impending collective bargaining agreement, are free agents.
That said, if the new CBA includes core players, the Fever will likely use the designation on Mitchell for a second straight season. She started all 44 games for the Fever this season averaging a career best 20.2 points and added 3.4 assists. Being designated as a WNBA core player means the Fever will have exclusive rights to negotiate with Mitchell for a one-year, supermax contract.
As for the remaining starters, Howard is a free agent after signing a one-year deal for $214,466 in February, returning to the franchise that drafted her in 2014. She has started 44 games, averaging 11.4 points and 6.6 rebounds. Lexie Hull is a restricted free agent after playing under a three-year, $217,502 rookie-scale contract that includes a fourth-year option that was exercised by the team. She started 30 games and averaged 7.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists.
Odyssey Sims’ was signed on a short-term hardship contract after Clark and Colson’s injuries. She was initially signed to a series of seven-day contracts, they converted them to rest-of-season contract to make her eligible for the playoffs.
White, who left the Connecticut Sun to return to Indiana in the offseason, is also expected to return.
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