Caitlin Clark needs to find the right partner. Jackie Young looks the part.
The Indiana Fever were loaded with offensive talent this past season, with both Kelsey Mitchell and Clark finishing Top 5 in MVP voting almost exclusively based on their offensive fireworks. Clark's long-range shooting and brilliant passing paired perfectly on offense with Mitchell's scoring from all three levels.
The problem was defense, and the Fever couldn't stop top opponents, even with All-Defense center Aliyah Boston on the back line. As the league's top two defenses just met in the WNBA Finals, it should be as clear as ever to the Fever and other would-be contenders that if they go to war with multiple defensive weak links, they will get blasted out of the water.
Which brings things back to Jackie Young. Caitlin Clark needs to pick up her phone and call Young, today and every day, and recruit the Las Vegas Aces star to join her in Indiana.
Clark and Young are a perfect fit
What the Fever do not want to do is invest in a star player who cannot thrive beside Caitlin Clark. The All-Star point guard is the present and future of the Fever (and to some extent of the league), and everything that Indiana builds moving forward has to maximize and complement Clark.
Boston is a perfect start. A defensively-dominant interior big who dominates in the pick-and-roll and has the hands to catch all manner of clever passes from Clark into the paint is a beautiful complement.
Mitchell, however, for all of her offensive brilliance and all of her history on the Fever, is not the perfect pairing. The Fever will almost certainly not win a title with both max guards in the backcourt, because defensively, each is an open turnstile to the paint. At some point, Indiana has to break up Clark and Mitchell.
If that is the case, however, the Fever need a replacement. Enter Jackie Young. Born and raised in Indiana, Young coming home would be a third star who fits the team like a glove. Jackie Young is a proven champion, winning three titles with the Las Vegas Aces; more so, she is a two-way star, combining high-level scoring and shooting with elite wing defense.
While Young can handle and create, she is most comfortable playing off the ball, as she did alongside Chelsea Gray to resounding success in Las Vegas. Putting her next to Clark would allow both to sing, and it would maintain the dual pressure that Clark and Mitchell brought to opposing defenses this season.
Young is no Mitchell when it comes to pure scoring, of course, but she isn't impossibly far off. And when you factor in her length and defense on the wing, suddenly the pairing takes off. With a defensive wing next to Young and Boston in the middle, suddenly the Fever could have a top-half defense to go with their surely elite offense.
There are certainly barriers to Young joining the Fever. She has played her entire WNBA career with the Aces and won three titles, and they would certainly want her to re-sign as a max player (or potentially even supermax). The Fever are a team in transition, with a new front office needing to be hired. Add in the drama swirling perpetually around the franchise, and any free agent will think twice about signing on.
That is where Clark has to play a part. She needs to call Jackie Young and make the recruiting pitch. More space to thrive, an opportunity to build something new, a return home to Indiana. If Clark could convince her, she might just have a chance to compete for a championship. Clark, Young and Boston? That's a team to fear.
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