INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever were unluckily unique this season. And that forced the front office to get creative.
Indiana ended its inexplicable run to a decisive Game 5 in the WNBA semifinals with four players on hardship contracts. After forcing overtime of that winner-take-all game, only one player that began the season as a starter was available to start the overtime period: Natasha Howard.
That just shows how unfavorable Indiana was on the injury front this season.
It lost Caitlin Clark (right groin/left ankle) on July 15, Sydney Colson (left ACL) and Aari McDonald (right foot) on Aug. 7, Sophie Cunningham (left MCL) on Aug. 17 and Chloe Bibby (left knee) on Aug. 22. A sixth tacked on with Damiris Dantas suffering a concussion Sept. 11, rendering her unavailable for the entirety of the eight-game playoff run.
The Fever front office needed to adapt quickly to keep the roster afloat, bringing on five different hardship players including Odyssey Sims (Aug. 10-end of season), Kyra Lambert (Aug. 14-19), Shey Peddy (Aug. 19-end of season), Aerial Powers (Aug. 22-end of season) and Bree Hall (Sept. 4-end of season).
They had to go across the country, or even the world, to find these players. And they needed them in Indianapolis on a days’ notice.
So, how did the Fever front office consistently find hardship players throughout the season? It all comes down to experience. Fever president Kelly Krauskopf has been around the WNBA for 25 years, GM Amber Cox has been around the league for 15, with multiple years in Phoenix and Dallas, and coach Stephanie White has been around the league as a coach and a player for decades.
“My job is to be prepared for something like this to happen,” Cox said. “For example, when we picked up the phone to call Odyssey, Odyssey was in Dallas the last few years, so I have a relationship with her. I know her agent, so it allows us to act quickly.
“I think it’s great communication between the coaching staff, between Kelly and I, as soon as something happens, you got to be ready to go. We walk into the season with a list (of available players) in terms of position, so we can be ready if something does happen.”
The 2025 season hadn’t even begun when the injuries started, and they persisted throughout the entire season. But as players went down, and some came in midseason, the Fever prided themselves on bringing in people that would be fits not only as players, but also as people.
“I think Kelly and Amber did such a great job in the offseason and throughout the course of the season, each time we had to bring in a new player, of really diving into not just what type of player are we getting, but what type of person are we getting?” White said. “Amber has said it from day one: we want quality human beings in our locker room.”
Clark missed the preseason opener with a left quad injury, something that was just the beginning of her many injuries in her sophomore year. Cunningham suffered an ankle injury in the Fever’s preseason finale, forcing her out for the first two weeks of the season. Quickly after each of them returned, those two were injured again. Clark strained her quad May 24 against the Liberty, knocking her out for two-and-a-half weeks, while Cunningham injured her same ankle again May 30 against the Connecticut Sun.
So, the Fever were down to nine available players. And the front office made its first last-second call to McDonald, who signed with the Fever two days later. She played with the Fever until Clark and Cunningham returned June 13, then the Fever had to release her because of league rules.
On June 25, Indiana released DeWanna Bonner, who had left the team after nine games June 10 because she felt it wasn’t a good fit. But they didn’t let that affect the culture they had built.
“Obviously, sometimes, there are misses, because it’s sport and that happens,” White said. “But at the same time, it’s about the group and how the group continues to move that culture forward and take ownership of that, because most of the time, as a teammate, you want to feel like you’re in it together, and you create that environment in the locker room.”
And Indiana needed that culture, that togetherness, especially as the injury and roster issues continued.
Those five season-ending injuries all happened over the course of six weeks, forcing the front office into a frenzy each time. But in each instance, Cox and Krauskopf were able to find players who were not only available, but could contribute in a big way.
Sims became the Fever’s starting point guard for the final month and a half of the season, finding a groove after a small ramp-up period. She ended up averaging 10.3 points and 4 assists, starting 18 games in a Fever uniform. Peddy was the Fever’s backup point guard and Powers was the backup wing, both playing heavy rotational minutes.
It wasn’t the season the Fever front office and coaching staff envisioned, of course. But, even in the middle of the WNBA season, they found players ready and willing to take on large roles.
“When you look at the people that we lost and then the people who came in, I’m really grateful for every one of those players that we call midseason at different points and picked the phone and said yes, from Aari to Odyssey to Shey to Aerial to Bibby, just down the line, each one of those players was excited to be a part of this,” Cox said. “… the impact that they had at different points and the big moments they had for us.”
But this midseason frenzy is something they hope they never have to do again.
“I think it is just bad luck down the line,” Cox said of the injuries. “And we look forward to, hopefully, we’ve hit our quota for several years. That’s my hope in the grand scheme of this.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at capeterson@gannett.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar’s YouTube channel for Fever Insiders Live.
