The Indiana Fever announced a bold move in the heat of the playoffs. Kelly Krauskopf is returning as the team’s president after six years as the Pacers assistant general manager. She architected the Fever’s run with Tamika Catchings, including leading the franchise to a title in 2012.
Krauskopf knows how to build a title contender and just helped the Pacers reach the conference finals last season. The 62-year-old is the perfect person for the job as the franchise builds around Caitlin Clark. Expect her to find pieces and keep improving their roster.
Krauskopf did well building an annual contender around Tamika Catching. She will try to emulate what she did with the Fever and how the Pacers built a fast-paced team around Tyrese Haliburton, but her first move is obvious.
Kelly Krauskopf must fire Fever head coach Christie Sides
Krauskopf did not hire Christie Sides, but she did hire Lin Dunn to coach the Fever from 2008 to 2014. Dunn is now the general manager, and she brought in Sides as her head coach. Krauskopf was a trusted voice for Dunn throughout her search, but things are not working.
Sides got the Fever back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, but there have been plenty of questionable decisions. It starts with her defense. The scheme allows the opposition to fire from 3-point range and get easy buckets. The Fever had the second-worst defensive rating in the W during the regular season.
Sides struggles to make adjustments. She had zero answers for Connecticut’s changeup in Indiana's Game 1 loss to the Sun. The head coach leaned more into playing to Caitlin Clark’s style of offense as the season went on, but the rough start was in part because Sides was trying a different system.
Beyond that, there have been whacky rotation decisions. NaLyssa Smith started both halves of their first playoff game but only played nine minutes. Why was she starting if Sides did not trust her? If Sides trusted her, why did Smith play so few minutes? It is a microcosm of the head-scratching decisions fans have endured all season.
The Indiana Fever need a more experienced head coach if they want to win a championship. Christie Sides has done well managing the personalities on the team, but her Xs and Os are just not strong enough. The Fever need better as they try to build an annual title challenger around Caitlin Clark.
Several talented coaches will line up for the shot to coach the 22-year-old phenom. There will be added scrutiny and pressure, but championship head coaches thrive on it. Kelly Krauskopf should fire Christie Sides and install the top name available as the Fever look to become title contenders in 2025. Stay tuned to see if it happens.