The Indiana Fever announced the team hired WNBA alum Sheri Sam as their assistant GM Friday, news that's both surprising and, frankly, reassuring.
Sam will join the team from the Portland Trail Blazers, where she has worked as the team's scouting manager since 2022. The Fever hasn't directly commented on that aspect of her career yet, but it's assumed that Sam's coming in for her scouting skills — and that's what the Fever desperately needs.
The Indiana Fever face a very real cap space problem ahead of the 2027 season. The team is on the hook for several expensive contracts without the calendar turning from 2026 to 2027. Aliyah Boston will be paid $1.6 million, and the team also has to provide Makayla Timpson's $305,250 contract, Damiris Dantas' $288,600 deal, and Raven Johnson's $300,698 contract.
And that's not even considering the Caitlin Clark of it all: Clark is eligible for the league's Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract (or EPIC) provision that could earn her up to $1.3 million for the 2027 season. The team also technically is responsible for paying Lexie Hull and Monique Billings each $800,000.
Assuming all of those contracts are paid out at those rates, the team will have around $3 million left. And while that's an enormous sum of money, it has to stretch over five other players — and the Fever needs at least a few of those players to be extremely talented veterans who can withstand the mental weight of playing at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and can guide the team's younger players toward their ultimate goal: a real run at a championship.
To do that, the Fever may need to take a page from the books of other teams and head overseas, in addition to intensely scouting throughout the NCAA this winter. Scouting wasn't necessarily considered a strong suit of former GM Amber Cox, which may be in part why she was dismissed from her role. Sam is different; her domestic scouting skills are rooted in practice, and she's more than familiar with the women's game.
Sam's hiring also proves the Fever is making good on the team's plans to invest more heavily into evaluation and scouting. Though it's a pretty non-traditional move to hire an assistant GM without having an actual GM in palce, it still shows that the Fever are making the right decisions as they begin to contemplate what the team needs next year.
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