{"id":201691,"date":"2025-10-04T14:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201691\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T14:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:19:08","slug":"indiana-fever-guard-should-already-be-on-two-teams-offseason-wish-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201691\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever guard should already be on two teams\u2019 offseason wish list"},"content":{"rendered":"

This WNBA offseason is full of uncertainty due to the CBA negotiations and obvious conflicts between the players and the league leadership<\/a>. Nevertheless, teams that have already finished the season should start thinking about what kind of players they would like to target in free agency\u2014whenever that will be. The Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, in particular, need to make several big decisions going into free agency. After all, their first seasons will be a chance to build a culture and a foundation for future success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both of those teams should already have their eyes on Odyssey Sims. The 33-year-old is a 12-year WNBA veteran, a former All-Star, and just starred in the Fever\u2019s stunning playoff run, capping off an already impressive stretch with 27 points, six assists, and the bucket that forced overtime in Game 5 of the semifinals. Sims can run an offense, score at a high level, and bring experience to a new team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Odyssey Sims deserves to start the new season with a standard contract<\/p>\n

Odyssey Sims averages 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and one steal per game over 316 regular-season games. She has been a consistent contributor ever since coming to the WNBA in 2014. Nevertheless, Sims struggled to secure regular roster spots in recent years, playing for the Sun, Wings, Sparks, and Fever on hardship contracts between 2022 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She made the most of her opportunity with the Fever, helping the team overcome several injuries, beat the Atlanta Dream in the first round of the playoffs, and push the Aces to their limits in the next round. That run left no doubts that Sims shouldn\u2019t have to struggle to land a standard WNBA contract. With two expansion teams joining the league ahead of next season, 24 additional roster spots will become available<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sims could help an expansion team in several ways<\/p>\n

Every expansion team will tackle its inaugural season with a unique strategy. However, if the Tempo or Fire have their eyes set on winning right away, they may take a page out of the Valkyries\u2019 playbook and rely on veterans that didn\u2019t get the attention they deserved in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bringing in Kayla Thornton, Tiffany Hayes, Temi Fagbenle, Monique Billings, and Cecilia Zandalasini helped the Valkyries secure a playoff spot. They needed the veteran leadership and experience. Sims can provide that kind of experience, and her time with the Fever also showed that she is a relentless, winning player and still has high-level basketball to offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if neither team plans to follow in the Valkyries\u2019 footsteps, having a veteran like Sims running the offense will help guide along younger players. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This WNBA offseason is full of uncertainty due to the CBA negotiations and obvious conflicts between the players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-201691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}