Caitlin Clark’s Absence Exposes Key Vulnerabilities in Indiana Fever Roster

With Clark on the bench, the rest of the Indiana team were put to the test when facing off against Washington on Wednesday—a team filled with young talent, three of them rookies—and the Fever, though stacked with veteran talent, looked disjointed and out of rhythm from the tip.

Without Clark orchestrating the offense, Indiana struggled to generate fluid ball movement, and overall seemed to lack direction. While Washington did come out gritty and played a competitive game, it was less about what the Mystics did right and more about what the Fever couldn’t do without their floor general. 

It wasn’t easy to predict that Clark would be sidelined so early in the season. After all, she hadn’t missed an in-season game since her sophomore year of high school. But with Clark ruled out for at least two weeks, the Fever rushed to compensate strategically.

Indiana’s head coach Stephanie White made the decision to start veteran guard Sydney Colson at the point, but Colson couldn’t provide the offensive pacing Indiana was obviously lacking. Coming away with just three assists, Colson notched three turnovers to match. Additionally, Indiana center Aliyah Boston, who has been putting up star-caliber performances in recent games, was only able to get five shots off—a result many criticized after the game.

The 83-77 loss was eye-opening, revealing the glaring void in the current roster. With Clark on the court, the Fever objectively look like a championship contender, but without her, the team does not appear playoff caliber.

It’s uncertain how Indiana will compensate for the lack of playmaking exposed in Wednesday's game. Being it is still early in the season, some adjustments are to be expected—but if significant improvement doesn’t follow, some of the the Fever’s front office moves from the offseason could come into question.

Notably not having a stronger option behind the team's offensive engine and thus relying on Colson to be the primary backup at the point guard position, as counting on Colson for big minutes did not appear viable in the admittedly tiny sample size provided Wednesday night. That in addition to the roster perhaps being overly reliant on players toward the end of their careers overall.

It will be up to the veteran guard to step up during this stretch, along with Kelsey Mitchell, Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull showing they can handle the task of generating offense in Clark's absence.

Because given the team's championship aspirations, the Fever can't afford to slip too far in the standings while their star guard is sidelined. The gut punch from the Mystics made it clear that both the players and coaching staff must quickly strategize to address the team’s deficiencies during Clark’s recovery.

This not only can help the Fever figure things out for when adversity strikes later in the season, but also so that the team can tread water until the big fix is back in the lineup.