Mitchell's got a Supermax edge, Clark's waiting on EPIC, and Indiana's watching somebody else's Finals from the couch. Quick catch-up before we dig in. Indiana went out in the first round despite a record-setting offense, and that left a cap puzzle. Kelsey Mitchell's an unrestricted free agent. Clark's eligible for an EPIC extension. And Cunningham, Tyasha Harris and Myisha Hines-Allen are free agents too. Indiana Fever Daily Podcast, I'm Joey. And the two teams still playing? They might've just handed us a blueprint. Plus, does Clark's wait on EPIC help or hurt? First, the Finals. Sports Illustrated, with Robin Lundberg:
The Dream, for one, did not rest on their laurels after a 30-14 season in 2025. They traded for Angel Reese. Atlanta finished with the same record but the addition of Reese's defense, hustle, and toughness helped propel them to the Finals.
Okay, Lundberg's Atlanta point is exactly the wing-defender thing I keep yelling about. Dream go 30-14, could've patted themselves on the back, and instead they trade for Angel Reese. Same record this year, but now they're in the Finals on defense, hustle, toughness. And look at how they got there. Five Dream players in double figures this postseason, and one of them's DeWanna Bonner, who they grabbed after Phoenix bought her out. A late-season veteran pickup, actually scoring in October. Meanwhile Golden State's got ten players logging double-digit minutes. Ten! We spent the playoffs basically asking Caitlin, Kelsey and AB to carry the whole building. And the Valkyries found Aminata Gueye late in the year. She played for France at the World Cup, and now she's in their playoff rotation. Indiana's front office should be on that international scouting tape right now. Run it back a third time with the same bench and you get the same exit. Grant Afseth, writing in Roundtable:
So not saying I am going to sign it, not saying I'm going to sign it or not sign it. I think it's just kind of figuring out the way we need to construct our roster. No matter what, I'm going to be here. I just want to do what's best for the team
Okay, read the whole Clark quote before anybody spirals. 'Not saying I'm going to sign it or not sign it,' and then right after, 'No matter what, I'm going to be here.' She's talking cap and roster like somebody who wants a ring. People halfway out the door don't talk like that. And per Afseth, she hasn't even talked to the front office about it yet. So the EPIC call's still on hold, but now it's got price tags: a projected one-point-three million max in 2027, a one-point-seven million supermax in 2028. Every one of those dollars competes with the Angel Reese-type defender Lundberg's piece says Indiana needs. See, that's the part that makes me twitchy. She just became the first player ever with 800 points and 300 assists in a season. I don't want her turned into the front office's discount coupon. Pay her, and go find the money somewhere else. She's the one who brought up the cap, Joey. 'What value they bring,' her words. If she's holding the pen on the extension, she gets a real say in who fills that bench, and I'd use it. From Grant Young at Indiana Fever On SI:
Article V, Section 8(c) of the WNBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement CBA) states that Mitchell's eligibility for a veteran Supermax contract (which she had with the Fever this past season) is only an option if she re-signs with the Fever rather than signs with another team. If she joined another team, Mitchell would only be eligible for the standard veteran maximum salary, not the Supermax.
Okay, Kelsey said she's going "selfish" in free agency. Great! Selfish math points straight back to Indiana. Article V, Section 8(c): the Supermax only exists if she re-signs with the Fever. Clark already said she'll help recruit her, and now the CBA's recruiting too. Run the 14 percent cap bump off seven million. Up to $1,582,000 here, $1,344,700 anywhere else. That's a $237,300 gap, more than she made in every season but the last two. And no sneaky sign-and-trade, either. Section 3(f) blocks a Supermax built to get flipped. So the Fever hold the best card. Play it. Sure, but that card gets paid out of the same cap that has to buy the kind of defender Atlanta went out and got. Yahoo has her at $1.4 million on a one-year Supermax this year. So Indiana pays top of the market again, and still has to find a wing. And if she walks over a cap squeeze, you're replacing forty minutes of scoring AND shopping for defense. I'll take the gymnastics. Jeremy Giggy, writing in 1010 WCSI:
And after following this team through the highs, the disappointments, the historic performances, and the moments when everything seemed to be coming together, I’ve reached a conclusion. The Fever do not have a superstar problem. They have a championship roster problem. There’s a difference.
Jeremy Giggy at 1010 WCSI wrote an offseason column. It's his perspective, not new reporting, but he lands right where I am. The star's fine. It's the roster around her that has to get to championship level. Twenty-eight wins, best offense in the league, Kelsey's scoring record... and then 94-83 in Vegas. Highest-scoring offense in the WNBA, and the season ends because the other team puts up ninety-four. Honestly, that box score is his whole column. Yes! And it lines up with the Atlanta stuff from earlier. The Dream went and got Reese, went and got toughness. Nobody down there sat around blaming their best player. Here's where I'd push Giggy, though. Calling it a roster problem is the easy part. Paying for the fix is harder. Mitchell's Supermax only exists if she stays, Clark's EPIC is still undecided, and every dollar there is a dollar that can't go to a wing who guards. Which is exactly why the 'Clark drama' crowd drives me nuts. When she says roster construction factors into the extension, she's asking Giggy's question out loud. Fair. Giggy also points to another year of growth from Aliyah Boston, so the core's in place. Getting the right pieces around it? That's the whole offseason. If you're enjoying the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast, please subscribe or leave a review wherever you're listening. Reviews help other people find the show, and your support helps us keep bringing you the latest.
We're watching the Dream–Valkyries WNBA Finals, and how much depth and defense end up deciding it, since that's the blueprint Indiana's getting measured against. We're also watching for the 2027 salary cap figure, and what it does to the dollar gap between a Fever supermax and an outside max for Mitchell.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a closer look at anything that caught your attention. That's Indiana Fever Daily Podcast for today. We'll be back tomorrow. This is a Lantern Podcast.