The Indiana Fever have made no secret about the team's collective goal: they want a championship, and they want it sooner than later. The last time Indiana won a championship was in 2012, and their last finals match was in 2015. Per The Athletic, a curious WNBA stat about back-to-back first round picks might indicate that this year is their year at long last.
The Athletic noted that one franchise has only been able to select back-to-back No. 1 overall picks six times in league history. The first four times resulted in championship wins within four years of that second pick. Aliyah Boston was selected by the Fever as the No. 1 pick in 2023, and Caitlin Clark joined the team as the No. 1 pick in 2024.
That means that if WNBA lore holds, the Fever are due to win their first championship this year or next. The team also has another reason to push themselves as far as possible this season: Clark's salary is set to increase astronomically next year, which will impact who the team can sign and how much they can be paid.
As The Athletic explained, the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) dictate that players on rookie-scale contracts who are considered exceptional have the ability to renegotiate the terms of their fourth-year salaries. There's little doubt the Fever will exercise Clark's fourth-year option next season, and many assume she will be negotiating for as much as she can. That's money that's well-earned, something that's likely to be come only more true after Clark plays this year.
Clark's potentail earnings combined with the contract Boston signed this year will add up to a hefty amount for the Fever to pay. It's clear the team belongs strongly in what Boston brings to the floor, and they've made it clear Clark is the star they plan to build around. So if the Fever's roster ends up looking radically different next year, this year's squad might play with an urgency that spurs them cloesr to the championship than they've been in a long time.
The team's championship goals will be helped and hindered by everything else that happens in the league this season. As we all learned last year, there's no way to predict now if they'll succeed or fail; there's not even a way to know if they'll end up near the championship at all. But if the Fever wants to chase that dream all the way to the finish line, the time is now — because they may not get the option to in the future.
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