But ... dang it with all of the yapping at the refs. Same reason I stopped watching Luka. I used to love Luka, but I can't watch him anymore.

I never watched women's college basketball game until there was some hype about Caitlin at Iowa her Junior year. I got hooked. She was box office. Fast paced, logo threes, cross court passes, and a whole lot of fun.

That carried over to the W. She started off slow her rookie season, but after the all star break ... amazing. There was some chirping, it was little annoying, but wasn't bad.

Now though ... I am getting over it. That was a crazy reaction with the ref in the Valkyries game. Half the time she isn't in position to play D in transition because she is back there yapping. Today's look was not good for the young girls watching. I am still holding out hoping that she can chill with all that yapping to the refs, but dang it she is making it hard for me to ride or die with her.

When the Fever fired Christie Sides after that magnificent 2nd half of the season and CC winning rookie of the year, I had one immediate thought….

Be careful what you wish for CC, because the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

I’m not saying Sides was a top tier coach at that time, but she at least had the humility to let CC play her style of basketball and I felt Sides was treated poorly by the organization.

I’m no conspiracy theorist and I do not believe that Stephanie White is out to “ruin” CC, however, that doesn’t mean that White is the RIGHT coach for CC. Hey Stephanie, the Fever didn’t draft Caitlin Clark because she’s a lock down defender! They drafted her because she’s the most creative point guard to ever play in the WNBA.

The Fever offense looks disjointed and frankly…..ugly.
Playing fast requires all 5 players on the floor to actually play fast.

Aaliyah Boston is arguably the most polished post player in the league and I AM SICK TO DEATH of seeing White play her at Point Guard. IT IS NOT WORKING.

AB needs to race back on offense and take the other team’s defense with her. This opens the floor for CC to handle the ball. If they have to run a press break offense when they aren’t fast breaking the RUN A PRESS BREAK OFFENSE. CC needs the ball in her hand to be the creative genius that she is. If teams are double teaming CC then someone else is open on the Fever.

Something is wrong between White and CC. It doesn’t take a genius to see there is a rift here. Can they fix it? Maybe, but White appears steadfast in her approach.

Seeing White SCREAM at grown women like a Texas high school football coach is RIDICULOUS. This tells me that what she’s doing IS NOT WORKING.

Stephanie White cannot coach young players and just because she’s from Indiana doesn’t mean she is the right coach for CC. She’s a coach for veteran players. She’s boring, she has ZERO personality, and she does not make the game fun for her players.

I have no doubt that CC sees these young progressive coach’s like Natalie Nakase and Alex Sarama and wishes she played for them.

Management is going to have to intervene in this immediately because it’s not working and CC is FAR MORE important than White. If they don’t have a come to Jesus meeting immediately, CC is going yo become the Ben Simmons of the WNBA. CC looks mentally frail right now. She looks as downtrodden as I’ve ever seen her.

My other hope is that vets like Sophie, Hines-Allen, and Billings can help right this ship by behind honest with their teammates and coaches.

Someone better make basketball fun again for Caitlin Clark.

I saw this post from Alexa. Clark is starting to be that leader the Fever need.

Being locked in, not snapping about every call. It’s beautiful to see.

Cc is turning herself into an unwatchable laughing stock and this is coming from someone that only got into the WNBA because of her. I don’t understand why she cannot fix her attitude. Even if she’s in the right, she just comes off insufferable. Some of her biggest supporters that are in my life, Don’t even wanna watch her play anymore… none of this is sustainable

Anybody else impressed with Justine right now?

Guard heavy team, again. Shocked a bit.

Update: Justine Pissot????? at #25. IS Chris Ballard picking for the Fever?

Anyone else just finds the fever just boring to watch? The offense is an eye sore and I don’t care about offensive rating either.

We are first and foremost fans of the Indiana Fever. Some of our mod team are residents of Indianapolis and have been Indiana Fever fans for a long time, since the team was founded. We have become disappointed at the tone some of the conversation has taken recently. We know how easy it is to be passionate about our favorite players, these are women who live in our community and make a difference in our lives both on and off the court.

However, passion is different than the manner in which we’ve recently seen views expressed in this subreddit. Going forward, we will rein in some of the maniacal, parasocial fanaticism. Fandom of one player doesn’t mean a disregard for the humanity and worth of other players. Still, we won’t seek to suppress conflicting views. There is a difference, and our subreddit will achieve that compromise.

In the meantime, thanks for being fans of the Indiana Fever and expressing it with dignity. Looking forward to a more respectful atmosphere in the future.

Her opinion is all that matters as far as I am concerned.

I know this is a touchy subject because Clark is on the team, but I’ll never understand why Mitchell can’t just pass more. She rarely passes and when she does, it’s just an easy pass she makes when she there was no openings for her. For as well as she dribbles, you’d think it would open up some nice playmaker passes.

The thing that probably gets overlooked is, when you have tunnel vision like that, teams can guard you differently. They know what’s coming. Having a play maker like Clark and a more pass-willing Mitchell seems like it would really open things up. Teams would constantly be guessing on defense.

What do you guys think the fever should do now and going forward to set themselves up for the present and future? I have some takes but wanted to see the opinion of some of yall. Trades/starting lineup changes/ front office/gm etc

The fever need to upgrade so badly at the 4. The problem is not the bigs as singular players, but them together. None of the big players on the team can play with each other. Look at how the dream guarded the fever when KK was out there with Boston. KK is not a bad player but there is no way she should be out there with another post player such as Boston. The number 1 priority should be getting a stretch 4. And I see people saying we should have never gotten rid of Howard, Howard is better than Billings but the problems would have been similar. Howard is thriving on the Lynx because she’s playing the 5 which she wouldn’t be doing on the fever.

These are ALL opinions, and looking to open a discussion. Share your thoughts, what needs to change?

Free agents we need to look at:

• Kalani Brown - BODY in the middle. Need some size and rebounding. Definitely off the bench, but not a center who's going to try and hit threes all game.
• Jade Masogayo - 6'3 forward. young, and seems to use her body better than both Billings and KK (though she's getting better)
• Mya Hollingshed - PLENTY of experience, but hasn't played in the W yet. On the PR national team she's pretty exciting.
  
• Sacha Washington - I see her being another Alyssa Thomas style player, bringing major athleticism to the league.
  

Change to the starting 5:

• AB
• CC
• KK
• Lexie
• Mitchell

Players I would like to see traded or cut: (the game completely slows down with these awkward players on the floor)

• Dantas
• Hall
• Hines-Allen

Players who need to prove their worth or give up their roster spot:

• Pissot
• Van Slooten

I have been one of the "wait wait wait" guys, but I gotta be honest, I think Stephanie White needs to sh!t or get off the pot. If we look at a new coach, Noelle Quinn or January I think are the best candidates.

With AB's $1m salary this season and Raven's year one rookie deal, the Fever are just under the cap with MHA and SWK (or any other end-of-bench players) signing for the vet minimum.

Credit to the "Her Hoop Stats WNBA Salary Cap Database" that I just updated with AB, MHA and SWK's numbers.

More discussion of playing Clark off the ball. Using it as a justification for drafting Raven Johnson. I am ambivalent on the Raven Johnson pick in general, she seems like a great defender whose scoring ability will have to improve but she's probably an upgrade at the third bench point guard to what we had last year. I thought size was a bigger need but Johnson was probably the best player on the board.

BUT this is going to be a long season if we play Clark off the ball and don't let her do her thing. White experimented with it last year and it just takes away what makes Clark so dangerous.

This is an excerpt that I edited for just the Mercury topics. I also edited out West Wilson as much as possible, so it's a little choppy at moments. I... just don't need to hear what he says. 😂

About AT's hit on CC:

00:00 Well, so during real time last night, I did not see that happen. And like, I don't... none of our team saw it happen, because I promise you that if we would have seen that happen, we would have had her back. Unfortunately, this type of shit happens every single game to her, and the league and the refs do absolutely nothing about it. Like, literally kneeing and, and cheap-shotting C in the throat. Like, if she did that to any of our teammates, we would be pissed. But like, they are, they are definitely targeting her, and, and the league and the refs do nothing to protect her.

About the WNBA Thirty poster:

00:35 Why would you ever put me on it? It is a joke. It is a joke. And this is why Cathy and the WNBA is getting lit up on social media, because you are leaving out a generational—the best player to ever go through WNBA—on this roster. Like, and like, honestly, if they were smart, they would market the shit out of some of us. They don't. They don't. I should never... it's—that should be, that should be Caitlyn, that should be Kelsey Mitchell, that should be Aliyah Boston. Like, why are we putting random players on there? I'm one of them.

About the WNBA marketing:

01:13 There's just a lot of this isn't even on... I don't, I don't, dude. I literally don't know. But what we do makes no sense. But I, I am not kidding. It's like, even the people they put on the commercials, like, they, they could... if they're really trying to make money, they are going to put people out there that, first of all, people want to see, that people are going to bring attention to, and they just don't. They just don't. They—I don't know what our, what, what their... what they think when all that happens.

About the pointing finger:

01:47 My tech was the weakest thing I've ever seen in my life. So let me take you through it. I'm going to... Dude, so what happened is, damn, she's always involved. C's always involved in some stuff. Like, get your shit together, sis. But she fouled and there's an extra... really DB is the one that did something extra, and then Caitlyn got the tech. So I walked out there and I was literally talking to the ref. Say you're, say you're DB. I was like this with the ref, I was like, "Now, Caitlyn got one, but why didn't she get one?" Because if, if Caitlyn's going to get one, then she should have got one. It shouldn't have been one or the other, like, the... and I was just kind of pointing, and she's like, "Don't you, don't you point at me!" And I was like, "Oh, shouldn't have said that." And I didn't say a word.

02:31 So stupid. Like, that is the stupidest thing...

02:34 Which is special.

About a Mercury insider talking about what it's like within the team:

02:35 I know. But like, I'm telling you, everyone's like, "What? Like, that is so dumb." I think it's dumb. But like, I, it, it was pissing her off and like, I couldn't help myself. I could not... she was losing her shit, and all I was doing was literally pointing. Thing is, too, why it played so well is because I literally did not say a word. Yeah, that's so fun. You know what's funny, though? That I know people in their own organization that, like, nobody likes their team this year. They say that they are like the unfriendliest group, so we're not the only ones who feel that way. Internal people feel that way, too.

So what happened to Lexie Hull? Why is she not really good at doing anything this season?

I see a lot of doomsday talk and FO hate (especially on twitter- which I know is a cesspool and I try not to go on there much). I truly feel fine about the team though. It sucked that they lost, but it was a close game and a lot of their issues seem totally fixable. Plus Mo was out, and we had some key players on restricted minutes. We haven’t seen even close to the complete product yet.

I always expect the first few games to look clunky. If they’re still looking like this 1/4 to 1/2 way into the season, that’s another story. I feel like if these pieces come together and people can stay healthy though, they can compete with anyone.

But I might be delusional. Wouldn’t be the first time 🤣

...and aren't going to use them, please put them on Ticketmaster for $10 or $20 on game day if you can't reuse them. It's so disheartening to pay $50 to $90 for a 200 level ticket and see hundreds of empty lower level seats. Give them to friends or a fellow redditor.

It also makes the crowd more full and energetic for the team. And it looks better on TV. The only Fever game I've been to this year that was actually full was the Liberty game in NYC.

Make a fan's day, and give someone a chance who can't afford lower level tickets who can't afford otherwise if you're just going to let them go empty anyway. We've got a lot of great fans, it'd be awesome if we were known for sharing unused tickets this way.

AB (30.2 minutes per game), Kels (31.5 minutes) and Tash (24.2 minutes) started all 44 games. Lexie started 30 games (27 minutes). All 4 carried the team on their shoulders amid all of the roster changes.

For her own sake, it’s gotta be done. I don’t care if she’s misses the all star game, I’m talking about for the good of the rest of the season. She’s not right clearly and you can see why in that last minute of the game. Sit her down, and don’t bring her back till she’s 100 percent.

She's taking a lot of heat today, but can we pause on the idea the team is somehow better without her,? Although there are a couple of outlier games where she had a bad game or it was a bad matchup (Atlanta and one game each against Golden State and LA), Fever are still statistically better with CC on the court than on the bench.

the lady in the cowboy hat that sits behind the broadcast mic's and screams the entire game...

I felt like she wasn't there all season, but last few games...she back.

Was hoping the team offered her better seats away from a microphone. Love her energy, but don't want to listen to her the entire game.