Eighteen thousand people at Chase Center chanting a veteran center's name, and Golden State is one win from a championship in year two. Year two. Meanwhile we're still waiting to find out who our general manager is. This is the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast. I'm Cera, Joey's with me, and it's Tuesday, October 27th. Today: the Valkyries take a three-two Finals lead, Sports Illustrated on why the next Fever GM hire can't miss, Rachel DeMita says hand the franchise keys to one star, and a Seymour Tribune column sorts the roster into keepers and question marks.
First, the Finals, with the Associated Press recap posted by the WNBA:
Stokes had 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, and Burton contributed a nearly identical stat line with 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots as Golden State got defensive once more to shut down Angel Reese and the Dream.
Thirteen and eight, twice. That's a matched set. Quick catch-up, since our last Finals update came after Game 3, when Atlanta led two games to one. On Saturday, Natalie Nakase put Tiffany Hayes and Kaila Charles in the starting five, and Golden State won Game 4, 67-62. She stuck with that group Monday night, and the Valkyries won Game 5, 64-55. And Hayes played ten seasons in Atlanta before coming out of retirement. Twelve points against her old team. You can't script that. The defense is the story. It was 25-22 at the half, the lowest-scoring combined first half in Finals history. Angel Reese, after two big games at Chase Center to open the series, finished with seven points, fifteen rebounds, five assists and three offensive fouls. The Dream turned it over seventeen times, and Golden State scored twenty-one points off those. Seventeen turnovers in a Finals game. I lose my mind when we cough up twelve in July. Some history, too. Stokes has three or more blocks in six straight games, tying Lisa Leslie in 2003 for the longest such streak in one postseason. And Burton's four blocks tied Diana Taurasi in 2009 for the most by a guard in a Finals game. A guard blocking four shots. That's the kind of perimeter length people keep saying Indiana needs. Hold that thought, it comes back in a minute. Game 6 is Thursday at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, tipping at 12:30 Eastern. A Game 7 would be Saturday back at Chase Center. 12:30 on a Thursday. For an elimination game in the Finals. Who signed off on that? Dream coach Karl Smesko said he's disappointed for fans who'll be at work, and floated making every WNBA championship game a national holiday. On the basketball, his message was simple: nothing's changed, win two and they're champions.
Elaine Blum, writing for Sports Illustrated over the weekend:
However, one thing is for certain: If the organization cannot build a championship contender around Clark and Aliyah Boston in the next two years, it will be a generational failure. Their GM choice will make the difference between success and failure.
Generational failure. Okay, Elaine, no pressure on anybody. Her setup is that teams with back-to-back number one picks usually reach a Finals, or win a title, within about three years. Indiana got to Game 5 of the semifinals last year without Clark for most of it, then went out in the first round this year with her healthy. Which, yeah, stings more than the injury year did. The to-do list she hands the next GM is specific. More frontcourt depth next to and behind Boston, because she thinks Makayla Timpson has improved a lot but isn't ready for a big starting role on a contender. And better wing defenders than Lexie Hull and Sophie Cunningham. And here's where it ties back to the Finals. Right. Blum writes that this year's Finals show the best way to get the most out of an All-Defensive-level big is to put great perimeter defenders next to her. She thinks a healthy Boston can be that big, and that the Fever simply don't have the perimeter defense to help. I love Sophie. I love Lexie's motor. But I watched the Vegas series, and I can't really argue. The catch is money. If Mitchell stays, she and Boston are at max money, Clark is eligible for her EPIC extension, and Hull and Billings make around 800 thousand each next season. Blum doesn't think either of them has much trade value right now. And she adds that top free agents may prefer a team with less drama and attention around it. So the job posting reads: fix the roster, no cap room, and sell people on the noise. Good luck. Her words: a tall task with no room for error.
Olutayo Inioluwa Emmanuel at EssentiallySports, passing along what analyst Rachel DeMita said on her own show:
“You got to give the keys of this franchise to Caitlin or pick one,” DeMita said on her Courtside Club podcast. “If you’re going to give them to Kelsey, give them to Kelsey… If you’re giving the keys to Kelsey, you build the offense a little bit differently than if you’re giving the keys to Caitlin Clark.”
I mean, she answers her own question. She wants Caitlin. She does. DeMita argues every great team has a hierarchy, franchise players and role players, and she'd hand the keys to Clark. But her bigger point is that somebody has to get them. I'm the guy who wants Caitlin talked about as a basketball player, so here's a basketball answer. She ran the offense. Twenty-two point three points, eight point three assists, AP Comeback Player of the Year. It's already her team. I'd push back on the either-or. Mitchell led the team at 24.7 a game, second in the league, and set single-season records for total points with 1,086 and threes with 135. Together they averaged 47 a night, which the piece calls the highest scoring output by any two teammates in league history. And that's exactly why this framing makes me nervous. Your best free agent is on the market, and the conversation is about whether she's second fiddle? That's the tension the next GM inherits. Clark as the orchestrator, Mitchell as the scorer, and it still ended against Las Vegas in round one. DeMita reads that as a hierarchy question. Blum reads it as a roster-around-them question. Can it be both? Asking on behalf of every Fever fan.
And Lew Freedman, in a column for the Seymour Tribune, does the roster triage:
With Mitchell, Clark and Boston aboard and healthy, the core of the Fever is set. Hull, Cunningham, Timpson and Johnson should be keepers.
Wait. So he's keeping the exact two wings Blum wants upgraded. Two columns, same weekend, opposite answers. Freedman has Timpson going from backup to starter and possibly on the cusp of stardom, and Raven Johnson improving all year. He thinks rookie Grace Van Slooten might figure in too. Raven in the playoffs was real. Over twenty minutes a game in that series, and she belonged. Then the question marks. Monique Billings, who has another year on her contract. Ty Harris, who broke a leg near the end of the season. Myisha Hines-Allen, Mercedes Russell and Bree Hall. He says it's far from certain how many of them get asked back. And Dantas? Damiris Dantas appeared in just 12 games before a knee injury. Twelve WNBA seasons, three in Indiana, and Freedman says one question is whether her Fever stay is over. Rough way for a twelve-year vet's season to go. His order of operations is the useful part. First, decide who's in charge. Then those executives either commit to Stephanie White quickly or find a new coach. Then go get the right mix around the Big Three. And step one is the part none of us can speed up. So we wait.
If this show has become part of your offseason routine, a rating or a quick review wherever you listen goes a long way. It's how other Fever fans find us. Tell them you're here for the cap math. Nobody else will admit it.
A Finals that could wrap up Thursday afternoon, and a Fever front office with two empty chairs. We'll pick it back up tomorrow, Wednesday. I'm Cera, Joey's been riding along, and this has been the Indiana Fever Daily Podcast, one of the shows from Lantern Podcasts.