Indiana Fever Set To Begin New Era Amid Unusual Circumstances In WNBA’s Florida Bubble

While one could make the case the Tamika Catchings era never ended in Indiana, the Hall of Famer and Fever legend completed her climb up the franchise’s front office last offseason when she became general manager. Catchings’ first season at the helm will occur under bizarre circumstances, but she and new head coach Marianne Stanley are determined not to let it affect the momentum around the franchise’s rebuild.

Stanley chuckled when when Catchings set expectations high, mentioning a playoff run in the early minutes of a Zoom call with media on Thursday morning. Yet later, it was Stanley confidently mentioning the postseason when discussing her goals for the season.

“I’m trying to approach this as normally as possible, given the circumstances of a season,” Stanley said. “We go into it wanting to win every game, wanting to make the playoffs and advance.”

The WNBA agreed last month on a plan to play 22 regular-season games and a full playoff on the IMG Academy campus in Bradenton, Fla. The league is in a unique position because, unlike its counterparts in the NBA, it never began its season, nor even training camp. The entire ramp-up will be crammed into a few weeks in the unfamiliar environs of south Florida.

“The training camp itself will be intense,” Stanley continued. “Everything is based on really how much we can advance during that time period in training camp.”

It’s not as if the Fever don’t have the pieces to be competitive. They bring back one of the best and most consistent scorers in WNBA history in Candice Dupree, as well as veteran big Natalie Achonwa, 2019 All-Star game MVP Erica Wheeler, and promising Mississippi State standout Victoria Vivians, who missed her sophomore season after an ACL tear in early 2019.

Those players will provide a steady hand for the franchise while they continue to transition to a younger core led by 2019 No. 3 overall pick Teaira McCowan. Adding to the Mississippi State caucus in Indiana, McCowan put together a quietly brilliant rookie season averaging nearly a double-double to go along with an efficient 57.6 true shooting percentage.

Despite drafting third in two straight WNBA drafts, the Fever have been able to assemble a frontcourt that can dominate in a league that still is dominated by versatile, athletic bigs. After taking McCowan in 2019, the Fever selected Lauren Cox this past April in the WNBA’s virtual draft. Cox, a gifted play-maker and capable floor-spacer, can pair with Teaira McCowan to form a versatile duo for many years to come.

“Year Two is even more important to develop the kind of confidence (McCowan is) going to need, especially in this compact season,” Stanley said.

Of Cox, she added, “One of the things that Lauren does really well is pass the basketball, and I’m counting on her to be a good partner for whoever she’s playing in the frontcourt.”

By the end of last season, McCowan was starting alongside Dupree in the frontcourt, while Achonwa came off the bench. One would expect that continues in 2020, even with a new coach. McCowan is the future of the franchise, while Dupree is on an expiring contract and the seemingly ageless Dupree is nearing retirement (eventually).

As the team ventures to IMG and into the bubble, it will lean on its veterans in new ways. Particularly in both pro basketball leagues, athletes are hyper-focused on using sports’ restart to draw attention to the movement against systemic racism unfolding across the country. When Catchings approached her team about how they might be part of the movement, Achonwa, Dupree and Wheeler took the lead. Their first consensus was, despite nine WNBA players so far opting out of the 2020 season, that they wanted to play.

“They want to play,” Catchings said, “and (as for) social injustice and being able to fight, they feel like their platform and being able to collectively come together, not just as 144 players and coaching staffs and all the other people who will be (in Bradenton), we all want to use (that) platform to create change.”

So far, the WNBA has announced minor acts like potentially putting the names of victims of police brutality or other messages on the back of their jerseys in place of player names, and painting “Black Lives Matter” on the hardwood courts. More will surely come, and for Catchings, it’s been exciting to see the transition from when she was a player and the WNBA punished players for protest to now, as the league works in conjunction with its players to work for social justice.

“I’m excited for our players to have the platform that they have now, so many people who are supporting the movement and supporting them,” Catchings said. “We have an opportunity to get down to Florida, use our platform, and everybody will be watching, not only to see what we’re doing on the court, but also what we’re doing off the court and using their platform to create change.”

Perhaps it’s a signal of her confidence that league stakeholders can work out that side of the restart, however, that she is particularly hungry for the competition. In her first season as GM, Catchings was likely expecting a lot of development and chemistry-building for her young team. That still has to happen, but there are infinitely more obstacles now.

Including, it seems, fickle analysts who doubt the Fever. Catchings did not miss a recent ESPN power ranking of WNBA teams (somehow released before rosters have been finalized) that put Indiana ninth out of 12 teams.

As the players liaise with her regarding how they will approach activism and protest during the season, Catchings presses on to build a team that can return the franchise to the glory it reveled in during her epic playing days.

“There are so many things that we don’t know right now,” Catchings said, “but the biggest thing that we’ve talked about … is the opportunity that we have, the players that we’ve drafted.

“We’re going to be higher than No. 9 — for sure.”