The Indiana Fever are 5-5 on the season following a Saturday night’s late-game collapse to the New York Liberty after being up as much as 12 late in the third quarter. Perhaps more concerning for the Fever than its record at the quarter mark of the season is the overall trend of superstar Caitlin Clark’s play.
Clark has struggled not only on defense but also on the offensive end of the court, where her scoring efficiency has seen a major drop-off as of late. Two-time NBA Champion and father of Klay Thompson, Mychal Thompson, appeared on Jason Whitlock’s _Fearless_ podcast to discuss what he feels has been some incredulous management of Clark from the Fever organization.
“[Never seen this any sport](https://x.com/jasonwhitlock/status/2064049890586472716?s=20),” Thompson said of the Fever running a system that doesn’t appear to accentuate Clark’s strengths. “It’d be like taking the serve away from Serena Williams. A coach telling her, no, I don’t like that big serve you have. So let’s have a more, more traditional serve, one that’s not as hard. And it’s like taking a bat out of Ohtani’s hands and turning him into a single-sitter.
“It’s like taking the second-best lineman in the history of football next to Ball State’s Jason Whitlock, the late, great Larry Allen from the Cowboys, and turning him into a long snapper. They’ve taken away Caitlin’s superpowers. And when you draft a player like Caitlin, like a Steph Curry or Magic, an Isaiah Thomas, of course, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. When you have a player of that caliber, of a wembe, you play to their strengths, and you build around a franchise player such as that.
“And it seems like they brought the franchise player in to make them play the way they want to play, as opposed to adapting to her style and what made her the most popular basketball player in the world when she was at Iowa.”
Clark has been supportive
-------------------------
For her part, Clark has been nothing but supportive publicly of head coach Stephanie White.
“I ride for Steph. I ride for these girls,” Clark said of hre head coach and teammates last week. “Steph has my back more than anybody. So, you know, nobody in that locker room, in our locker room, or Steph, or our coaching staff, thought twice about it. It’s just another example of what everybody, all of you, wants to blow up and make something that is just lost and not in reality.”
Ultimately, there’s still a lot of season left for Clark and the Fever to get all of this sorted out, but if things aren’t turned around soon, it’ll be worth wondering if Indiana is the best place for Clark to realize her full potential.