Six. That's how many players MARCA says Indiana currently has under contract for next season. And one of the guards who won't be on that list is already saying her goodbyes online. The roster rebuild is starting with a lot of empty lines. This is the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast. Coming up: Tyasha Harris and the shrinking roster, the first-round TV numbers, and Bomani Jones on why the fan fight isn't going away.
Jorge Gordillo, writing for MARCA:
With the chapter closed on a brilliant individual year, the Fever front office faces an urgent offseason agenda, headlined by the priority to re-sign Kelsey Mitchell, who also posted an MVP-level season, while filling out a roster that currently features only six players under contract, with veteran Sophie Cunningham widely anticipated to look for opportunities elsewhere.
The hook for that piece is Tyasha Harris. She broke her fibula in the regular-season finale, then posted a carousel of photos from her year with her hometown team. Clark's comment underneath: love you homie. That one got me. Thirty-nine games off the bench, about four points in thirteen minutes, and then she's watching from the bench while Raven Johnson takes those playoff minutes. Joshua Heron at the IndyStar picked it up this morning too. Harris is a Fishers native, she's now a free agent, and Stephanie White talked about her future at Saturday's exit interviews. MARCA's read is that a return is possible but hinges on the money left after a Clark max extension and a new Mitchell deal. And that Cunningham line is MARCA's projection, not anything the team said. I'm not packing Sophie's bags yet. Fair. But six under contract cuts both ways. Fewer obligations means room to rebuild the bench. It also means White's rotation in May could look very different from the one that just lost in Vegas. One nice note. Aliyah Boston posted year four, check, in all things I give thanks, per Athlon Sports. Clark replied, proud of u. Whatever the cap sheet looks like, the room still likes each other.
Dan Zaksheske at OutKick, with the first-round viewership numbers:
Indiana's three games averaged approximately 1.93 million viewers, compared with 985,000 for the seven non-Fever games. That gave Clark's games an average audience approximately 96% larger than the other first-round games, nearly double the audience.
Yesterday it was regular-season data through Amber Cox. This is the playoffs. Game 3 in Las Vegas averaged 2.25 million on USA Network and CNBC, which OutKick says is the second-most-watched first-round game ever. The first is also a Fever game, against Connecticut in 2024. And the Game 2 win, the streaming-only one on Prime Video on Tuesday, September 29? 1.42 million. Still above every non-Fever game, including the 1.40 million for Golden State and Dallas on ESPN. By about twenty thousand viewers, so I wouldn't lean on that one too hard. The cleaner comparison is opening Sunday on ABC. Liberty and Lynx drew 1.20 million. Fever and Aces drew 2.11 million. Same day, same network. Clark's the draw, nobody's arguing. But Mitchell and Boston played in those games too. The more useful line is Zaksheske's own. The league's opportunity is turning fans who come for Clark into fans who stay for everybody else, and he writes there's a long way to go. The rest of the playoffs are that test.
Kevin Harrish at Yahoo Sports, on what Bomani Jones said on his podcast, The Right Time:
"I don't think all of these people are making this up," Jones said on the podcast. "I don't believe that all these women who are in the league are just like jibber-jabbering. When it comes to this, there is an issue with the way that players and other fans are receiving the fans of the Fever."
We covered Cox and Mitchell's competing accounts on Monday. Cox said the attacks on Fever fans have no basis in reality. Mitchell said playing here hasn't always been easy. Jones is siding with the players' version. His comparison was Malice in the Palace. His point is a team can't go on the microphone and blame its own customers, so Cox was never going to say anything else. That's the bind. Jones also said Mitchell was getting grief from fans for playing too well, because it was cutting into the Clark MVP case. That's his characterization, but he's tying it straight to her free agency. And that's what scares me. Mitchell already said she has to be selfish about this decision. If she walks, it's not about the cap. It's about whether this place felt like home. Cox can keep defending the fanbase. But the front office's answer on this matters as much as any offer sheet.
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Every story from today is linked in the show notes. We're back Thursday with whatever the Fever offseason brings next. The Indiana Fever Daily Podcast is a Lantern Podcast. See you then.