INDIANAPOLIS — It’s impossible to think of the Indiana Fever and not immediately jump to Caitlin Clark. Few stars transcend their sport like Clark. As a result, everything the Fever do is looked at through a Clark-tinted microscope.
“How will the new general manager build a team around Clark?”
“How will the offense be built around Clark?”
“How does the latest new player on the roster fit on the floor with Clark?”
It’s hard not to look at the Fever through such a lens, with Clark showing all the potential to be the next great star of the league.
But ultimate success in basketball doesn’t come alone. Titles aren’t won by a single player. And the Fever aren’t a one-person team.
Before there was Clark, there was Aliyah Boston. Drafted with the No. 1 pick a year prior to Clark, Boston burst onto the scene by winning Rookie of the Year and earning an All-Star nod in her first season.
She and Clark formed a formidable partnership on the court as pick-and-roll mates. But that alone wasn’t enough for the Fever to find postseason success.
In a bit of irony, the coach who eliminated them, White, left the (seemingly setting) Connecticut Sun to return to the Fever, a team she suited up for in her playing days. She brought an entirely new offensive system with her, and it isn’t as reliant on Clark-Boston pick and rolls.
No, that’s not because she’s turning Clark into some heliocentric star. White says this offense will actually have Boston as the hub.
“I think sometimes when we use the term hub, oftentimes they think passing all the time and it’s not. It’s using her to get into another action,” White said. “I want her to be a little bit more selfish in that from that standpoint, but I think that’s going to come. It’s going to come when she gets more comfortable in her reads.”
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Photo by Joseph Boatman/NBAE via Getty Images
The Fever finally have lineups to help Boston be more dangerous than ever
While the offense will, obviously, still feature a very healthy dose of Clark, a reconfigured roster could also set up Boston — and the rest of their teammates — for success as well.
Last season, Boston spent a lion’s share of her time on the court as part of a more traditional lineup, typically alongside power forwards Nalyssa Smith or Temi Fagbenle. Of the 1,236 minutes Boston played, 1,054 of those came alongside another big, per lineup data from WNBA.com.
Much of that was a product of roster construction. The Fever did not have a forward who could be a viable threat on the perimeter offensively while also being able to hold their own defensively. One of the key offseason acquisitions in that regard, then, was DeWanna Bonner.
With the ability now to put spacing and credible shooters around Boston, the Fever can further unleash her. White and her staff want to weaponize Boston’s desire to move around, placing her in different spots all over the floor.
“I think it’s going to help her a lot,” White said of the new offense. “Now finding her spots is a little bit different in our system than what she’s been used to. So I think really hunting opportunities when she has them, whether it’s mismatches, whether it’s after an action that she’s involved in.”
Last season showed Boston’s ability, at times, to be a hub offensively, often from the post. This season, though, the Fever want Boston to be a threat all over the court.
“I think last year. I was in the block, I was in the dunker [spot],” Boston said. “But now I’m at the [3-point line], I’m on the wing, I’m moving the ball, passing the ball from the top. So for me, just being able to find my spots in that, but once again being comfortable in every position that I’m in.
“For me, it’s just really understanding where I’m at on the floor and what exactly my next move should be when it comes to that.”
But the Fever want Boston to use mismatches for more than just scoring
Another reason White views Boston as a hub of the offense is her playmaking ability. While she may not regularly dish the dimes that Clark does, Boston is a skilled passer in her own right.
Despite the addition of Clark, who finished in the top 10 in the league in usage percentage, Boston’s own usage percentage increased as well. Part of what made the Clark-Boston pick and roll so tough to guard is that Boston is just as adept at finding open players out of the short roll as she is at diving all the way to the basket and finishing at the rim.
That is evidenced by her 3.2 assists per game as she tallied nearly 40 more assists from her rookie season despite playing fewer total minutes.
“It’s huge,” White said of Boston’s passing. “It’s why we make that a priority and we don’t want her to just be a hub from the trail position, right? We want her to be a scorer and facilitator from all five positions on the floor. So wherever we’re able to get her the ball, we want her to think score first. And then if she doesn’t have it and doesn’t like it, then we’ll facilitate out of it.”
No center in the WNBA had more assists last season than Boston. Only two players had higher assist percentages and only three had better assist-to-turnover ratios.
The preseason has already shown glimpses of what having Boston as the fulcrum could look like with her passing.
“I take pride [in passing] because I think my teammates do a great job of finding me and passing me the ball, so I just want to be able to do that for them as well and just make sure that they’re in the right positions,” Boston said. “But I think it’s always great to be a good passer. When you pass the ball and someone else gets to see the ball go through the hoop, I feel like there’s no better feeling.”
For as long as she’s around, the Fever will be Caitlin Clark’s team, on and off the court. There’s a good argument that the league will go as she goes in the coming years, in fact.
But if the Fever are to make good on all the lofty preseason expectations surrounding them heading into this season, it’ll take more than just Clark. And Aliyah Boston looks primed to be a more than suitable superstar sidekick in their chase for a title.
