Until she gets teammates that punish the defense for leaving them wide open, CC will continue to face massive defensive pressure. Wallace, Wheeler, KLS, and Smith are more often than not empty possessions on offense. A shot from Wallace or a drive from Wheeler may as well go on the box score as a turnover.
Offensively, watch them. In the first half of the possession typically only one player is moving while the others watch. Then in the second half of the possession another player moves. Other than their stupid high pick post pick and roll that's it, that's the offense. Stupid easy to defend. The lack of movement allows defenders to overcommit on Clark while still being able to recover on the player they left. Add to that the teammates that can't hit an open shot and it is a recipe for disaster offensively.
I watched probably about 10-15 minutes of the game last night. I saw multiple wide open 3pt shots missed. Saw KLS clank a layup of a beautiful CC pass. Saw Temi rim out a layup off a beautiful CC pass on a secondary break. Saw CC try to push too hard to make up for her teammates which caused several turnovers. It was ugly
On the other side of the floor the Aces showed ball movement, spacing, player movement, and ability to knock down shots to finish the game off in the 4th quarter. Obviously better talent getting the most minutes and better coaching.
Boston is good, but she isn't great. She doesn't match up well defensively against the best bigs in the game at this point in her career. Smith needs to be gone soon. Wallace needed to be out of the starting lineup a while ago. Wheeler is somehow a max contract player. Mitchell needs to move on if she can't pass the ball within a coherent offense. KLS should be a 5-10 mpg player. Temi gives good effort, but there's a reason she is only on her 4th WNBA season at 31 years old, and first in 5 years. Nobody else on the roster matters.
The Indiana Fever 2024 salary cap table, including team cap space, dead cap figures, and complete breakdowns of player cap hits, salaries, and bonuses.
www.spotrac.com
Good news is that the Fever have two huge contracts coming off the books this year in Wheeler and Mitchell so they should have money to spend. If I'm the GM, there's two players I build around in Clark and Boston. I don't exercise my club option on Smith and consider doing the same with Hull and/or Wallace depending upon what I can get in free agency. You're stuck with KLS, Berger, Saxton, and Dantas another year and I work to resign Temi for depth plus probably Hull. You should have about $700k in cap space to work with to fill 4 spots. One of those is likely an early draft pick next season costing about $70k, leaving $630k for 3 players. That should allow them to overspend for two high-level starting caliber players while finding a couple of veterans to fill the roster.
Here's the free agents at the end of this season. I'm not seeing any large amount of amazingness in available guards, but I wonder if they take a run at Griner or Stewart. Either could be an amazing add to go with Clark and Boston. Not sure that either would leave their current teams though unless you throw a max contract at them. Taurasi is another one that could be interesting to pair with CC, not sure she'd leave Phoenix behind though. But her, CC, Boston, and one of Griner/Stewart would make for a pretty good super team.
Tracking the status and signings of all WNBA free agents.
www.spotrac.com
