Despite several season-ending injuries, including a groin injury that limited Caitlin Clark to only 13 games, the Indiana Fever almost accomplished their goal of reaching the 2025 WNBA Finals. They upset the Atlanta Dream in the first round and pushed the Las Vegas Aces to the brink in the semi-finals. After that somewhat unexpected success, the goal for the 2026 season is obvious: build another winning roster and get to the finals.
The Fever currently have three players under contract for the 2026 season: Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, and Makayla Timpson. The first two are the cornerstones of any success the Fever will have in the future. Considering their talent, that success could be tremendous if they are surrounded by the right players.
Building a star-studded championship core can be tricky—and pricey. ESPN’s Michael Voepel proposed a relatively simple way for the Fever to overcome that obstacle in the future, when examining what’s at stake for different players in the CBA negotiations. “Clark has two years left on the rookie contract she signed as the No. 1 pick in 2024,” Voepel writes. “Once she becomes a free agent, she could afford financially to do what Wilson has done: take a lower salary to ensure playing with a strong group of teammates that fits under the salary cap.”
Clark has some of the most lucrative endorsement deals in the WNBA. Even if W salaries increase significantly under the new CBA, Clark may exceed her league earnings with the money she makes from deals with Nike, Gatorade, and other companies. If she is willing to do what Voepel suggested, it could ensure the Fever’s competitiveness for years to come.
A’ja Wilson isn’t the highest-paid player in the WNBA
After a fourth MVP award, Finals MVP honors, and a third championship, there is little doubt that A’ja Wilson is currently the best player in the WNBA and the world. However, Wilson is not being paid like the best player in the world. In 2025, she was far from the highest-paid player in the W.
Wilson made $200,000 in the 2025 season—just as much as high-level role players DiJonai Carrington and Natasha Cloud. Meanwhile, the three highest-paid players in the league were Kelsey Mitchell, Arike Ogunbowale, and Wilson’s teammate Jewell Loyd.
Keeping the Aces’ core of A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Kelsey Plum, and Chelsea Gray together for as long as they did while also putting capable role players around them wasn’t cheap. Neither was ensuring that the team would stay competitive even after Plum was traded to the Sparks. None of it would have been possible under the current CBA if the Aces paid Wilson what she was truly worth.
The Fever will quickly become expensive
The Fever have the unique chance to build a contender while Clark and Boston are still on cheap rookie contracts. Once that is over—Boston will be a restricted free agent in 2027, and Clark has a team option coming up that same year—the team will quickly become very expensive.
Kelsey Mitchell is already one of the highest-paid players in the WNBA and could get another raise after her MVP-level season in a new deal with the Fever. Based on talent and resume, Boston’s and Clark’s salaries will also skyrocket once their rookie contracts are up. That will make it a lot more difficult to sign top-level players, like the Fever did with Natasha Howard in 2025, to make the team as competitive as possible around the big three.
While the new CBA will change salary structures and salary caps, that is something the Fever must keep an eye on.