Six days after knee surgery, Aliyah Boston's name is on a list of players committed to winter basketball. And I need a doctor to explain that to me before I panic. Or before I get excited. Not sure which yet. Fair. You're listening to the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast. I'm Cera, Joey's with me, and it's Wednesday, October 21st. Today: where eight Fever players are spending the offseason, Elle Duncan on the position Caitlin Clark has been put in, a backup big playing in the Finals right now, and Angel Reese evening that series before tonight's Game 3.
Lindsay Burke, writing for Indiana Fever On SI:
Boston's exact timeline and status for competing in Unrivaled remains unclear after the Fever announced that she had undergone successful arthroscopic surgery to repair the meniscus in her right knee. Boston dealt with the injury throughout the WNBA season, with the issue dating back to Unrivaled play last February.
So she's committed to the league where this whole knee thing started. I love the competitor in that. I also want someone in a lab coat in that conversation. Burke is careful here. Committed, but no timeline and no status. Unrivaled tips off in January and runs through March, so the real question is whether the rehab fits that window, and nobody has said. We covered the surgery on Monday's show. The only new piece is the commitment. The bigger list is wild, though. Burke counts eight of the fifteen players from this year's roster signed up somewhere. Lexie Hull and Monique Billings are back in Unrivaled too. And here's the part I'd circle. Kelsey Mitchell and Sophie Cunningham, both unrestricted free agents, signed with Project B along with Makayla Timpson. That's the new five-on-five league that reportedly offered some stars two million dollar salaries, which is more than the WNBA max. Play runs January through April. Which overlaps with free agency. Caitlin is supposed to be hosting recruiting visits early next year, and her number one target could be playing in some international tournament. That's a scheduling wrinkle, not a sign she's leaving. Burke also has Bree Hall going to Germany and Michelle Onyiah to Spain. Clark isn't playing anywhere, as far as anyone knows. Her winter job is recruiting.
Jeremy Beren, writing in Sporting News, on comments Elle Duncan gave Front Office Sports:
"I think Caitlin Clark has been put in a completely unfair situation," Duncan said. "It is so complicated, it is so nuanced, it is long before Caitlin Clark stepped foot on a WNBA court that some of these ideas and these narratives have been out there, but they used her as an avatar, and I think it's not fair."
Avatar is exactly the word. She's twenty-two when she gets here and suddenly she's supposed to answer for every argument people were already having about this league. Some background. Earlier this month, in her exit interview, Clark said people using her name for racist rhetoric or hate is not something she stands for. We aired that at the time. Duncan's clip from FOS Tonight posted Monday, and Beren builds a column around it. And he pulls in Kelsey. Her saying she'd be selfish in free agency, after the way some interactions with Fever fans wore on her. That's the part that scares me. That's Beren connecting it, and it's a fair read of what Mitchell said. He goes further, too. His argument is that Clark being the avatar has shielded league leadership, under outgoing commissioner Cathy Engelbert, from hard questions about player safety. That's his opinion, and the league hasn't responded to it here. And his kicker is basically that as long as every Fever game is on national TV, nobody has a reason to change anything. Right, and that's why this belongs on a basketball show. He leaves open whether all of it costs Indiana on the court, especially with Mitchell's decision coming up. The noise isn't just noise if it affects who signs here.
Grant Young again, this time on a free-agent idea for Indiana On SI:
Amihere's impact doesn't always show up in her stat line. She's an elite defender and a rim protector, which Indiana could really use from a backup center.
Laeticia Amihere! Golden State's forward, who can also play the five and runs the floor. And she's on the court in the Finals as we speak. The box score is modest. 3.9 points, 3 rebounds, 0.8 blocks in 11.7 minutes. Young's case is the defense. After Game 1, Natalie Nakase credited her work on Angel Reese, who didn't score in the second half of that game. And she shot 41.2 from three. Young admits it's on almost no attempts, like 0.4 a game, but he thinks she could follow the Boston plan and start letting it fly. On less than half an attempt a game, I'd hold off on the shooter label. Two real catches, though. She's a restricted free agent, so Golden State can match any offer. And the reason she's cheap is that she made 277,500 dollars this year, which Young says leaves room to re-sign Mitchell. And the backup big spot might be open anyway. Jessica Toomer at Just Women's Sports flagged Myisha Hines-Allen posting a moving truck on October 13th with the caption "On to the next." She's the one who went for 12 and 12 in Game 3 against Vegas. Hines-Allen hasn't confirmed anything, and Indiana hasn't said whether it wants her back. But with Boston rehabbing and Cox already asking for frontcourt depth, a cheap rim protector is a real need, not a luxury. This is a columnist's idea, though. Nobody's reporting talks.
Nicole Somma, writing for MARCA, on Monday's Game 2 of the Finals:
She also became only the third player in WNBA Finals history to record at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a single game, following Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart. She also set the record for the youngest player to achieve that statistical combination in a Finals game.
So much for Amihere locking her up. Thirty and sixteen, Atlanta wins 79 to 65, and the series is tied at one. One half of defense doesn't make a scouting report. Golden State took Game 1, Atlanta answered, and Game 3 is tonight in Atlanta, the date the league moved up so the Dream could use the bigger arena. Either way, the league crowns a first-time champion. And Somma's angle is that Caitlin's still making headlines without playing. Sunday she's in a suite at Arrowhead with Taylor Swift for Chiefs-Chargers, and Monday an Xfinity ad drops where she bakes cookies with Cookie Monster. Both of those are fine. Somma frames it as two ways to hold the spotlight, Reese through her play and Clark off the court. I'd say the Finals are the more useful thing for Fever fans to watch. Two deep, defense-first rosters, which is basically Indiana's winter to-do list. I will be watching. Some of it with cookies, apparently.
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That's the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast for this Wednesday, part of the Lantern Podcasts family. Game 3 tips tonight in Atlanta. We'll have whatever it settles, plus the latest on the free-agent board, when we're back tomorrow. Links to all four stories are in the show notes.