How the Indiana Fever packed a rebuild into two seasons

Indiana scraped out a win over the Washington Mystics to officially reach the postseason on September 11 of that year. The legendary Tamika Catchings hit a three in the first minute of that battle, a tone setting shot for a crucial victory. It led to the Fever’s 12th-straight playoff appearance, a then-record that still hasn’t been broken.

Since then, the Fever haven’t been back to the playoffs. Catchings retired after that season, and the Indiana franchise had never played beyond the regular season without the star on its roster. Only twice from 2017 to 2023 did the Indiana Fever win more than 10 games in a single season.

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Back in 2016, Lin Dunn was two years removed from coaching in the WNBA. She announced her retirement from the role and was instead working as an assistant with the Kentucky Wildcats. Christie Sides was an assistant coach at Northwestern University. Catchings was, of course, still playing — her entire career as a general manager was yet to come. Caitlin Clark started the year being just 13 years old.

This was two — nearly three — Presidential elections ago. Now, Dunn is back with the Fever as the general manager. Sides became an assistant coach in Indiana, left, and came back as the head coach. Catchings joined the front office as the Director of Player Programs, was promoted to general manager, and then stepped down from the position before Dunn took over.

So much has happened since the last time the Indiana Fever were a postseason team. Faces have come and gone and come again. But now, that drought is over. On Tuesday night, rather unceremoniously, the Fever secured their playoff berth as both the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream lost late in the night. Sides was in bed. Clark stayed up to watch but didn’t celebrate. It was late, after all, and the Fever had a game on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Sparks.

“I was asleep. I’m going to bed by 9:30, 10 o’clock every night,” Sides said. “I did set my alarm for midnight to wake up, but I actually just turned it off. Didn’t even look.” She added. She tried to keep her focus on her team, even in a late-night moment where she could have found out that her team was finally back in the postseason.

The blank space that was the Fever franchise from 2017 onward didn’t have many high moments. Pokey Chatman led the team to a 13-21 record in 2019, and the team started the following season 4-5. Progress appeared to be coming. They then won 13 of their next 81 games — about one of every six — across 2.5 seasons. There was never any acceleration.

The team lost their final 18 games in 2022. In reality, though, that year is when the turnaround started. In February, Catchings stepped down from her front office post and Dunn was brought in. Dunn’s plan was all about improvement, and she quickly turned over much of the roster. Out went some veterans. Training camp was filled with cuts after a busy draft night.

Dunn moved on from head coach Marianne Stanley less than 10 games into that season. Carlos Knox was named the interim head coach, but he wasn’t retained. The new GM tried two different head coaches before ultimately hiring Christie Sides to be the head coach later that year. Just a few days after that hire was made official, Indiana won the 2023 WNBA Draft lottery.

That lottery victory turned into Aliyah Boston, and within 14 months, everything fell into place for the Indiana Fever. Everyone was in the right seat on the bus. They had the right GM, the right head coach, and had started to assemble a young core featuring Boston and NaLyssa Smith, among other key pieces.

“I think we’re on the right path to do what we want to do to get this team back on track,” Dunn said just after making selections in the 2023 draft. “There’s a lot of good things going on now.”

Their next campaign was perfect. Boston was sensational, winning Rookie of the Year and being named an All-Star, yet the Fever just missed the playoffs and once again won the WNBA Draft lottery. This story is well known by now. They earned the right to select Caitlin Clark, who is the near-certain Rookie of the Year this season and a star already. She has changed the landscape of the WNBA.

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Fittingly, for the Fever to earn their 17th win this season — the victory that became enough to earn a playoff spot — Clark and Boston both had to do their thing. The two All-Stars were terrific in a win over the Dallas Wings, with Clark scoring 28 points and dishing out 12 assists while Boston had seven points, eight rebounds, and a career-high eight assists. Indiana beat Dallas by seven, and two days later their spot in the 2024 postseason field was secured.

“This is a big moment for this organization,” Clark said. “But at the same time, I came in with the expectation that is what’s going to happen… there’s still so much more left to be done.”

10 of the 12 players currently on the Fever roster were acquired in 2022 or later, aka after Dunn took over. The two exceptions are Kelsey Mitchell, who the franchise drafted second overall in 2018, and Temi Fagbenle, who was acquired in a 2021 trade with the Minnesota Lynx that was mostly about big salaries being moved. Fagbenle and Mitchell have both been excellent this season, but they are the only two players not from the Dunn era. This team has been constructed in the very recent future.

So has the front office and the coaching staff. The last two years have been everything for Indiana, and now that group is playoff bound. They have a bright future.

The story of this playoff berth is about the last two years, but it was all made possible by Mitchell. On Wednesday, before and after Indiana beat Los Angeles, everyone with a microphone made one thing clear: they were thrilled for the two-time All-Star. Mitchell has been with Indiana for her entire career, yet she has never reached the postseason. She had a tough moment with her family in 2022 when she didn’t make the All-Star team, “I think for me, for so long, people always tell you what you could do better to be named [an All-Star] and how to be a part of the conversation,” Mitchell said in June 2022. “Just when you think you’re making strides, something else brings you down. It’s unfortunate.”

Indiana’s lack of eyeballs as a losing franchise hurt Mitchell’s candidacy. She has been an All-Star the last two years as the team improved, but her journey — and Indiana’s — featured many lows. Just before the season. Mitchell’s father passed away, leading to an emotional Father’s Day outing.

Now, finally, Mitchell is being recognized. She’s playing the best basketball of her career and averaging nearly 19 points per game, and she has been unguardable for the last month. Nobody deserves the success the Fever are currently having more than Mitchell.

“It’s a grateful moment for me. I’m happy about it,” Mitchell said Wednesday. “But you don’t just make the playoffs. You have to do something in the playoffs now.”

It didn’t look like the Fever would reach this point this year. They started the season 1-8, seemingly placing playoff goals out of reach. Veteran wing Katie Lou Samuelson told The Next on Wednesday that the team tried to focus and stick together early, but it was rough.

Then, wins started coming. Indiana is 17-8 since that start. “I think when you go through tough times, that either makes you or it breaks you. And for us, it really brought us together,” Samuelson said.

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Samuelson has played with Sue Bird and Courtney Vandersloot before. She’s seen high-quality point guard play and been on great teams. Yet playing with Clark still stands out thanks to the rookie’s aggressiveness and ability to get everyone involved.

“I feel like this team is different than any team I played for,” Samuelson explained. The UConn product didn’t actually watch any of the games that helped Indiana clinch their postseason spot, opting instead to keep her TV on her sister Karlie playing for the Washington Mystics.

Every Fever player or coach had a different Tuesday night. Some stayed up to watch the games that mattered for their fate, others went to bed and found out late in the night or the next morning.

What did they all find out? That the Fever are finally back in the playoffs. They officially clinched that spot quietly in the night, but they are loudly coming for the rest of the WNBA.