{"id":889130,"date":"2026-10-20T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889130\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:40:10","slug":"indiana-fever-could-target-wnba-finals-standout-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889130\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever Could Target WNBA Finals Standout in Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">The Indiana Fever will need to make some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/fever\/wnba-finals-show-why-indiana-fever-can-t-afford-to-stand-pat-01m4nk17p9w6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">changes to their roster if they want to compete for a WNBA championship<\/a> next season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">One potential target for them is playing in the WNBA Finals right now. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">Golden State Valkyries forward Laeticia Amihere could be a compelling player for the Fever to pursue when she enters free agency this offseason. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">She is currently a restricted free agent, which means that Valkyries can match whatever free agency offers she receives from another team. But that shouldn&#8217;t stop the Fever from at least making an offer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01m5czz6jn177m386dcw.jpg\" alt=\"Chicago Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez (11) shoots the ball against Golden State Valkyries forward Laeticia Amihere (3).\" title=\"Chicago Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez (11) shoots the ball against Golden State Valkyries forward Laeticia Amihere (3).\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6z\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chicago Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez (11) shoots the ball against Golden State Valkyries forward Laeticia Amihere (3). | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Why Laeticia Amihere Could Make Sense for Fever in Free Agency<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">Amihere&#8217;s stats don&#8217;t necessarily jump off the page (she averaged 3.9 points, 3 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks in 11.7 minutes per game during the 2026 regular season). But she&#8217;s an athletic forward who can also play center, run the floor, and do several things that the Fever will need more of if they&#8217;re to improve next season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">One of these is playing quality defense. After the Valkyries&#8217; Game 1 WNBA Finals win against the Atlanta Dream, Golden State head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/womens-fastbreak\/news\/angel-reese-natalie-nakase-disagree-on-scoreless-wnba-finals-2nd-half-dream-vs-valkyries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Natalie Nakase praised Amihere&#8217;s defense against Angel Reese<\/a>, who was held scoreless in the game&#8217;s second half. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">&#8220;I thought [Amihere] did a fantastic job with that matchup [on Angel]. LA had great energy; again, she was kind of our insight with this game plan, and so you could tell there was a lot of confidence in her matchup. [Amihere] was really key tonight for our success,&#8221; Nakase said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">Amihere&#8217;s impact doesn&#8217;t always show up in her stat line. She&#8217;s an elite defender and a rim protector, which Indiana could really use from a backup center.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">The Fever&#8217;s starting center, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/fever\/aliyah-boston-s-three-point-leap-has-changed-everything-for-fever-01kzycc4n5f0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aliyah Boston, made huge strides with her three-point shooting<\/a> this season, which was critical in maximizing her efficiency within Indiana&#8217;s offense.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">Amihere shot 41.2% from three-point range this season. It was on limited attempts (she took 0.4 three-pointers per game), but that percentage shows she is more than comfortable taking the shot when it&#8217;s available. And she can follow the blueprint Indiana has for Boston to get her taking more three-pointers, which could further increase her offensive value.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"84\">Perhaps most important of all is that Amihere will be affordable. She made $277,500 with Golden State this season and likely wouldn&#8217;t require much more in free agency this upcoming offseason. Therefore, signing her would still provide the Fever with enough cap space to also re-sign Kelsey Mitchell or make other additions to the roster. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"89\">Amihere isn&#8217;t perfect and won&#8217;t solve all the Fever&#8217;s issues. But she&#8217;s an affordable player with potentially high upside who could fit Indiana&#8217;s needs and offensive scheme as a backup to Aliyah Boston. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-CEpdLuTO.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"8f\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Fever will need to make some changes to their roster if they want to compete for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-889130","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\/889130","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=889130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}