Indiana Fever Part Ways With Katie Lou Samuelson Amid Busy WNBA Offseason
The Indiana Fever have been extremely busy throughout this WNBA offseason.
Over the past few weeks alone, they've re-signed guard Kelsey Mitchell, signed elite wings DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard along with former WNBA champion guard Sydney Colson, and traded for Sophie Cunningham and Jaelyn Brown.
Indiana has received a ton of praise for making these moves. However, with so many players coming on board, it also meant that the Fever would need to offload some of their 2024 rostered players to make room.
They included forward NaLyssa Smith in a trade package to acquire Cunningham and Brown and also waived Grace Berger. However, one of the most surprising roster decisions the Fever have made came on Monday, when they announced on X, "we have mutually parted ways with forward Katie Lou Samuelson.
"wishing you all the best, Lou ❤️".
we have mutually parted ways with forward Katie Lou Samuelson.
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) February 10, 2025
wishing you all the best, Lou ❤️ pic.twitter.com/O6lGb7Ij4y
It's interesting that the Fever called it "mutually parting ways", which isn't something they did when announcing that they had waived Grace Berger.
ESPN insider Alexa Philippou added context to this move by writing on X, "Sources tell ESPN conversations between Samuelson & Indiana regarding buyout terms have been happening over the past week. In that span she's also been in discussion with four teams as potential next destinations
"Samuelson will hit the wire for 5 days, then becomes a free agent".
Sources tell ESPN conversations between Samuelson & Indiana regarding buyout terms have been happening over the past week. In that span she's also been in discussion with four teams as potential next destinations
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) February 10, 2025
Samuelson will hit the wire for 5 days, then becomes a free agent https://t.co/FYWHFa8228
There was a surplus of players at the forward position after Bonner and Howard came on board (not to mention that Indiana still has Lexie Hull), which likely factored into this decision.
It surely won't take Samuelson (who has played with a different team every season of her WNBA career) long to find a new squad this offseason.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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