{"id":259341,"date":"2025-11-03T18:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259341\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:37:13","slug":"fevers-sophie-cunningham-gets-bad-news-about-her-future-as-indianas-priority-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259341\/","title":{"rendered":"Fever’s Sophie Cunningham gets bad news about her future as Indiana’s ‘priority’ revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the largest trade in WNBA history, the Indiana Fever in February acquired Sophie Cunningham<\/a> from the Phoenix Mercury in a move that saw both teams reshaped. In Cunningham, Fever general manager Amber Cox saw a “perfect fit” for how Indiana wanted to play around star point guard Caitlin Clark — and Cunningham became known as Clark’s “enforcer,” a physical, versatile 6’1” shooting guard with a deadly 3-point shot.<\/p>\n

Cunningham though saw her season end earlier than expected due to a knee injury she suffered in August; by that time, Clark too was injured, and neither player returned to action even as the Fever made a run to the WNBA semifinals. Despite Indiana’s finish, one game shy of a WNBA Finals appearance, the Fever’s roster could change dramatically in 2026 — and that could mean Cunningham, an unrestricted free agent, will be on another team next year.<\/p>\n

Kelsey Mitchell, not Cunningham, is the Fever’s #1 priority<\/p>\n

Though the league’s calendar is in flux as the WNBA and the WNBPA continue negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, the upcoming free agency class will see practically every player not on a rookie deal hit the open market next spring. Cunningham is one of eight Fever players slated for unrestricted free agency — but it is another Indiana guard who is the franchise’s priority whenever the market opens.<\/p>\n

Indiana GM Cox and head coach Stephanie White have stated that re-signing three-time All-Star Kelsey Mitchell is the franchise’s #1 goal in free agency, a stance reaffirmed in a new SB Nation<\/a> free-agent ranking.<\/p>\n

“We want to continue to build around her\u00a0and continue for her to have success. I thought she was so instrumental in everything that we did,” White said last month<\/a>. “You lose everybody that we lost, and Kelsey Mitchell just kept getting better and better and better as the year progressed. And I think that while it’s hard to believe she’s eight years or whatever in this league, that there’s still so much in her.”<\/p>\n

The Fever’s anticipated efforts to re-sign Mitchell on a multi-year contract may squeeze Cunningham out of the picture. Teams around the WNBA are likely to covet Cunningham after a season in which she averaged 12.2 points per game and shot a career-best 43 percent from downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, Cunningham herself is aware of her value — and she is not prepared to settle for a run-of-the-mill one-year deal, especially with salaries set to rise significantly when a new CBA is ratified.<\/p>\n

“The next team I play for, I want a bigger contract, so then I can buy a house and be cozy,” Cunningham said last week on her Show Me Something<\/a> podcast. “It could be anywhere.”<\/p>\n

More WNBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the largest trade in WNBA history, the Indiana Fever in February acquired Sophie Cunningham from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-259341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}