While the entire league is on the rise, the Indiana Fever may be in the best position for the future. They have Caitlin Clark, a generational phenom, and Aliyah Boston, who may not have created the same hype as Clark but is still a superstar in the making. The foundation is already in place. Now, the Fever just need to build the right team around their two stars.
Kelly Krauskopf has done it before. She was the one who drafted Tamika Catchings with the third overall pick in 2001 and built a championship team around her.
Krauskopf already made the first move towards turning the Fever into a championship contender when she let go of Christie Sides and hired Stephanie White to take over the head coaching duties in Indiana.
There are other lessons she should remember from building around Tamika Catchings, though.
Lesson #3: Defense matters
The current Indiana Fever’s biggest weakness is defense. While they posted the third-best offensive rating in the league during the 2024 regular season, they were 11th in defensive ranking. Everyone knows how important defense is. After all, the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx had two of the three best defensive ratings in the league and were the last two teams standing.
The 2012 Indiana Fever were a top-five offensive team but also posted the third-best defensive rating during the regular season. They were a true two-way team, led by Tamika Catchings, who won five Defensive Player of the Year awards and was the top-scorer on the Fever’s roster.
If your best player excels at both ends of the floor, winning becomes much easier. Caitlin Clark is not the same kind of defensive talent Catchings was, but that just means the organization has to surround her with other talented defenders and put her in a position to be her best on that end of the floor.
Getting some defensive upgrades and improving the team’s schemes on that end of the floor should be a priority this offseason.
Lesson #2: Deep teams win championships
We just saw it with the New York Liberty: Depth matters. Deep teams have an easier time withstanding injuries or struggles from star players.
The 2012 Indiana Fever were a deep team. They may have only had three players averaging double-digit scoring—Tamika Catchings, Katie Douglas, and Briann January—but coach Lin Dunn trusted every player who was available for 29 or more games to play at least 15 minutes per game.
The team’s offense ran primarily through Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings, who averaged 13.9 and 13.6 field goal attempts per game respectively—almost twice as many as the next player—but everyone else contributed to winning basketball. Briann January, for example, led the team in assists per game, Erlana Larkins was a strong rebounder, Erin Phillips stepped up in Game 1 of the Finals when Katie Douglas was out, and Shavonte Zellous put up a then career-high 30 points in Game 3.
It is incredibly important to have players around your stars who know how to play their roles to perfection and step up in the biggest moments.
Lesson #1: Building a championship team does not happen overnight
The Fever want to win as soon as possible, and rightfully so. Stars like Clark and Boston won’t wait forever for the organization to build a winning roster around them. Plus, they already got a first taste of playoff basketball in 2024 and need to get some wins. Regular season success matters little if the team cannot win in the playoffs.
And yet, the Fever will need to display some patience. Their two best players are still young, and the WNBA is filled with great veterans chasing championships. The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are not going anywhere. Las Vegas will try its hardest to be back in the mix next season, and Seattle, Connecticut, and Phoenix also have strong veteran contributors.
Breaking through might not be as easy for the Fever as some people expect it to be. Playoff experience matters, and building a championship team often takes time. Catchings and the Fever did not win a championship until 2012, even though she was drafted in 2001.
It shouldn’t take the current Fever ten years to get to the championship level, but it might take two or three seasons.