ESPN Makes Telling Fever WNBA Offseason Roster Change Prediction
On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer that the Indiana Fever's front office will do everything in its power to keep the 2025 band back together, so to speak, for next season.
This is because the Fever's roster came one game away from advancing to the WNBA Finals before they were beaten by the Las Vegas Aces, who ultimately went on to sweep the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals. And Indiana was able to accomplish this while having five players sidelined with season-ending injuries (including superstar Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham), while Damiris Dantas didn't play in the postseason because of a concussion.
Therefore, given what this team could do with a depleted roster (which is a testament to the culture and camaraderie that head coach Stephanie White fostered), the Fever's front office will presumably try to keep this roster intact.
The bad news is that this will largely be out of the Fever front office's control. In addition to two new WNBA expansion teams (who will be comprising their rosters with current WNBA players), almost every WNBA veteran — including essentially every player on Indiana's roster aside from Caitlin Clark, Makayla Timpson, and Aliyah Boston — is becoming a free agent this offseason.
This makes is essentially impossible the Fever's roster will be the exact same in 2026.
ESPN Predicts Indiana Fever's Roster 'Might Not Change Much'
However, this reality hasn't kept ESPN's Alexa Philippou from believing Indiana will look mostly the same in 2026 as it did in 2025, which she revealed by placing the Fever's roster under a "Teams that might not change much" category in an October 15 article that assessed which teams will experience the most personnel change in the coming months.
"Given their slew of injuries throughout the 2025 season, the Fever didn't get to really see what their revamped roster from this past free agency could have done if healthy, but they still ended up five minutes away from making the WNBA Finals. One thing working in their favor: Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston are still on rookie deals," Philippou wrote.
In a pivotal WNBA offseason, a new CBA is being negotiated and there's an unprecedented number of free agents. So which rosters might look very different in 2026? Which WNBA free agents might be on the move? And who is expected to stay put? https://t.co/KIEtVlStUU
— ESPN Women's Hoops (@ESPN_WomenHoop) October 15, 2025
"Indiana GM Amber Cox made it clear the team's top priority is to re-sign Kelsey Mitchell, who enjoyed an MVP-caliber season and has spoken glowingly of her relationship with coach Stephanie White and of her time in the organization. When asked how much roster change she anticipated this offseason, Cox focused on how special this 2025 group's chemistry was, and said that while there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding free agency, 'a lot of these players will be in our plans,'" she added.
Fever fans are hoping this forecast comes true and that their team includes a lot of familiar faces in 2026.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever 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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