The youthful Indiana Fever are likely to take some lumps this season. An 0-5 start is disappointing, frustrating, even agonizing at times, but let’s stop short of calling it miserable. In fact, there are more than a few positives from the winless opening week.
And while 0-5 currently sits in the WNBA standings cellar, Indiana has reached the playoffs after similar beginnings — remember 1-7 in 2013?
First point: when you take the league’s youngest team and slap them with five games (against four elite opponents) in the season’s first eight days, that is just not a recipe for success.
Not only did the Fever play all five games against teams who currently are a combined 12-3, but they also had little to no time to prepare. In fact, according to this week’s AP WNBA Power Poll, Los Angeles, Connecticut and Washington rank 1-2-3 in the entire WNBA. Indiana played Washington on the second half of a back-to-back last weekend, then faced L.A., the Mystics again and Connecticut, each with only one day in between. For a young team literally learning its way through the league, that is a formula for defeat.
Neither a complaint or an excuse, it is a simple fact and a part of the opening-week evaluation.
Indiana’s average age is 25 years old. In Saturday’s loss at Connecticut, all five first- and second-year players saw at least 15 minutes of action. In four of five games, all four rookies have seen playing time. We’ll see a lot of that this summer, though it’s something the Fever franchise has not seen since its inaugural year in 2000. By that comparison alone, yes, this club is apt to take some lumps.
But the five-games-in-eight-days opening stretch has allowed Pokey Chatman and her staff a quick opportunity to learn and evaluate; to learn where their band of youngsters needs work; and assess where this dozen can have success.
The first step, beginning this week, is to take a breath and use six days to prepare for a single opponent — New York on Saturday, June 2. And then another six days to prepare for another home game with Dallas on Friday, June 8. Two games in 13 days gives Chatman and some of the “babies,” as she referred to her rookies in postgame comments at Connecticut, more time to spend in the classroom.
Let’s talk positives. There are many, in fact, beginning even with Saturday’s loss to the Sun.
Against an unbeaten Connecticut squad that was the first in league history to eclipse 100 points in its first two games, Chatman said her team did the “hard work,” winning the rebounding battle and keeping Connecticut under 100, but lost control by failing to do the little things. Those little things come with discipline, training and drilling in the proverbial classroom (aka, film room and practice court).
Moral victories don’t equate with winning, but you can’t improve without honest evaluation. And without elite, experienced All-Stars dotting the roster, Indiana’s margin for error will continue to be slim. The key for the Fever is going to be learning how to minimize the errors and broaden that margin.
The Fever’s worst loss, the hardest to swallow, was its opening-day 17-point defeat at the hands of Chicago — a team it had beaten in the preseason. The Sky (2-2), like Indiana, are playing with youngsters. Indiana was flat beaten and Chatman’s ire in that game was stoked by an apparent lack of effort. Lesson No. 1 for the youngsters — this is no longer the NCAA.
Since then, the Fever have twice out rebounded their foes, something they did rarely in 2017. And despite double-digit margins prior to the fourth period in all four contests against Connecticut, L.A., and Washington, Indiana crept within single digits in the final quarter of all four losses.
Again, no moral victories. But if we’re evaluating … those babies haven’t laid down in defeat. While more consistency, fewer mistakes and stingier defense might be at the center of this current learning curve, there certainly have been glimpses of improvement from 2017.
Kelsey Mitchell is an obvious starting point for evaluation. The No. 2 overall pick has scored points aplenty. That aspect of her game was an expectation that has proven fruitful — double-digit scoring in 4 of 5 games, with highs of 25 and 20. She is fast up the court, but now must learn to manage different speeds. She has to defend; she has to minimize turnovers, stay out of foul trouble and she has to learn ball movement skills at the highest level. At Ohio State, she was always her club’s first option. In the WNBA, she needs to learn to play as her team’s first, second, third or even fourth option at times. She will get her touches and she’ll continue to score points. A key to her success might be in how she creates touches and opportunities for everyone around her.
Similarly, fellow first-round pick Victoria Vivians has seen success from 3-point range, but she needs to broaden her game at a level she’s not seen before. She has converted 7-of-15 3-point attempts and scored 13 against the Sun. Her size is valuable on the perimeter. Her ability to play without the ball and create space for Mitchell and other teammates should enable success.
Neither Mitchell or Vivians — or fellow draft pick Stephanie Mavunga — has ever truly been challenged during their entire basketball lives. They have achieved at every level. But the jump from college to the ultra-deep and competitive WNBA, the best women’s league in the world, is a steep one. The raised intensity and the in-your-face-every-night learning curve is real for each of them.
When Indiana trailed Connecticut by 16 in Saturday’s first half, Vivians and Mavunga sparked an 11-0 Fever run with Mavunga scoring six straight at one point. The rookies can play. They need to minimize mistakes.
As the rookies go, so, too, will Indiana, as the Fever roster undergoes on-the-job-training.
Indiana’s leadership base also has been good, but it reflects the evolution of the Fever roster. Candice Dupree has averaged 13.6 points and 7.6 rebounds and, even at 32 years of age, is still a model of consistency. The six-time All-Star is a winner at the highest level, but now she finds herself in the role of teacher and tutor as much as star player.
Likewise, Natalie Achonwa has welcomed a similar role in grooming Indiana’s younger players. Herself just 25 and in her fourth active season, Achonwa always is heralded as a cerebral player with good ball skills and off-ball smarts. Sometimes out-matched physically, her task has always been to outsmart opponents. Now in her third truly healthy season after an ACL injury, she is playing at her highest level as a pro. She posted career highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds at Washington, but her stats are often driven by matchups. The Notre Dame grad and Canada Olympian will continue to teach and nurture alongside Dupree and the coaches, despite games where her stats don’t reflect her value.
An unexpected bright spot has been Indiana’s fourth rookie, guard Hind Ben Abdelkader. In country for barely two weeks, the newcomer has absorbed Chatman’s system like a sponge and routinely sees time at both guard positions. The scoring that characterized her game in Turkey and Belgium has not yet materialized, but she bides her time as an able backup. As she minimizes mistakes, she will be a valuable piece behind Erica Wheeler, Tiffany Mitchell and Kelsey Mitchell. Her instincts and shooting may soon have impact.
You want energy off the bench? Second-year forward Erica McCall, herself just 12 months out of college, grabbed a game-high nine caroms at Connecticut despite playing just 16 minutes. She compares favorably with Mavunga in terms of a high activity level under the boards. But both are currently outmatched against bigger, more physical and more versatile posts in the rugged WNBA. McCall and Mavunga may take more lumps than most, but their energy level is contagious among teammates and will help them steer the course.
Third-year guard Tiffany Mitchell has seemingly picked up this season where she left off prior to a knee injury and surgery last summer. She has reached double-figure scoring in three of five games and remains the club’s career leader in free throw percentage. Scoring and getting to the free throw line are a staple to her game. But she, too, is only two years removed from the college hardwood and still must adapt to varying speeds. Her athleticism is on par with anybody in the WNBA, but at just 23, her ability to manage speed and finesse will dictate her success.
It is almost comical to regard 27-year old Erica Wheeler, or even Achonwa, among the team’s most savvy veterans. Both are quick to assume leadership roles, but both are still reasonably young in terms of WNBA experience. An undrafted free agent just a couple of years ago, Wheeler had a breakout season in 2017 and could one day be mentioned in All-Star conversations. She matched a career high with nine assists at Connecticut and she has shown flashes for scoring in a flurry. Consistency is perhaps her greatest challenge in just her fourth WNBA season; and with so much youth around her, another challenge is helping mold such an energetic and mistake-prone backcourt.
There are positives to be had, even without digging too deep. For Chatman and the Fever, the questions will surround how quickly the babies mature.