{"id":235867,"date":"2025-10-19T08:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/235867\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T08:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:01:08","slug":"wnbas-highest-paid-star-could-be-fever-hcs-answer-to-caitlin-clark-questions-says-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/235867\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA\u2019s Highest Paid Star Could Be Fever HC\u2019s Answer to Caitlin Clark Questions, Says Reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The historic free agency is finally here!<\/p>\n

Watch What\u2019s Trending Now!<\/p>\n

Over 100 players who took the floor in the 2025 season are now unrestricted free agents, setting the stage for player movement this league has never seen before. Of course, a new collective bargaining agreement still needs to be finalized before any deals can go down. But once that\u2019s done, it is going to be big. Big opportunity rather, especially for teams desperate to fill some glaring gaps. Case in point: Caitlin Clark\u2019s Indiana Fever.<\/p>\n

The Fever\u2019s rollercoaster season came to a close with their Game 5 semifinal loss to the Las Vegas Aces. Despite battling a wave of injuries and relying on multiple hardship waiver signings, Indiana still managed to exceed expectations, finishing with a winning record and a playoff berth. \u00a0But, as much as everyone appreciates resilience, the real question is how this team thrives once Clark returns next season. <\/p>\n

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Exactly what the No Offseason: The Athletic Women\u2019s Basketball Show crew \u2013 Zena Keita, Sabreena Merchant, and Ben Pickman \u2013 discussed recently. Keita straight up said, \u201cThere is a difference between the Caitlin Clark version of the Fever and the version they had to cobble together. And that version worked well with Odyssey Sims and Kelsey Mitchell. But will it work well when Caitlin\u2019s back? So, missing that secondary guard position could be\u2026okay, that makes sense as to what to look for during the free agent market.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of now, the Fever have just three players locked in for 2026: Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Makayla Timpson. Meanwhile, Lexie Hull (restricted free agent) and Sophie Cunningham (unrestricted free agent) have both expressed interest in returning, and Kelsey Mitchell (unrestricted free agent) is Indiana\u2019s \u201cNo. 1 priority\u201d this offseason- rightfully so after the kind of season she has had<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The buzz, however, is about adding a forward who can stretch the floor, someone who can create more space for Clark on the perimeter and give Boston room to work inside. Still, that secondary guard remains essential. When Keita asked her co-host Ben if he had anyone in mind<\/a>, he didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cIn terms of guards, I mean, like if I\u2019m them, I\u2019m making whatever the equivalent of the biggest plea I can for Jackie Young. Like, I don\u2019t think I would expect her to leave, right?,\u201d he said. \u201cBut she is an Indiana native. She played at Notre Dame. If you can ever try and lure someone out of the Las Vegas Aces ecosystem, that is a player that I\u2019m certainly going after, making the biggest swing I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Aces\u2019 title-winning trio is the tip of the iceberg in this year\u2019s free agent class. While Chelsea Gray and A\u2019ja Wilson seem likely to stay put (with both eligible to be cored) Jackie Young hasn\u2019t clearly stated her intentions yet. She\u2019s hinted at \u201cbringing it back,\u201d which favors her staying, but she changed agents last offseason and is now the only member of the Aces\u2019 core (Wilson, Gray, Jewell Loyd, and even coach Becky Hammon) not represented by Klutch Sports.<\/p>\n

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As the highest-paid player in the WNBA with an annual average salary of $252,450, a max contract offer from Indiana could shake things up for the two-way wing. It\u2019s unlikely, sure, but imagine if it actually happened.<\/p>\n

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And well, if not Jackie\u2026 there\u2019s always a chance another one from Indiana finds her way home to the Fever.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark & Co. could bring back more than one Indiana star\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 WNBA Draft is still months away, and with a new CBA agreement yet to be finalized, there\u2019s plenty left to sort out before any selections are made. But that doesn\u2019t change that the next year\u2019s class is absolutely loaded.<\/p>\n

At the top of the board, you\u2019ve got potential franchise-changers like Lauren Betts, Azzi Fudd, Flau\u2019jae Johnson, and Olivia Miles, all expected to fly off early. Yet this draft runs so deep that real impact players could still be sitting there well into the late first round and even into the second. \u00a0That\u2019s exactly where the Indiana Fever might find themselves in a sweet spot, holding the No. 10 pick and a chance to bring back a familiar face \u2013 Yarden Garzon. <\/p>\n

The 6\u20193\u201d sharpshooting guard spent three years with the Indiana Hoosiers before making a surprise transfer to Big Ten rivals Maryland. Garzon led the conference in 3-point percentage as a freshman in 2022\u201323, and over her NCAA career, she\u2019s hit an impressive 42.6% from deep. That kind of range and height would make her an ideal complement to Fever\u2019s young core, aligning perfectly with Indiana\u2019s goal of surrounding their young stars with consistent perimeter shooters.<\/p>\n

If the Fever end up losing any of their guards or don\u2019t land a major name in free agency, Garzon could be the perfect, cost-effective fit. There are no concrete plans yet, but once the free agency dust settles and the draft approaches, don\u2019t be surprised if Indiana looks home for its next big shooter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The historic free agency is finally here! Watch What\u2019s Trending Now! Over 100 players who took the floor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-235867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235867","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=235867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}