Fever President Sees Caitlin Clark As Silver Lining For Past Failure

The Indiana Fever benefitted greatly from nearly a decade of WNBA mediocrity.

May 14, 2024; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) talks to the media before the start of the game against the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Indiana Fever have come a long way in the past few years, especially considering the point their franchise was at before that point.

The Fever have one WNBA championship, which came in 2012. They've also made it to four WNBA Finals, with the most recent being in 2015. That shows the Fever are among the more successful franchises in the league, at least when the league's nearly 30-year history is taken into account.

Indiana lost in the 2026 WNBA playoffs without winning a game. From there, they went 9-25 in 2017, 6-28 in 2018, 13-21 in 2019, 6-16 in a COVID-shortened 2020 season, 6-26 in 2021, 5-31 in 2022, and 13-27 in 2023. They didn't make the playoffs in any of those seasons and were dead-last in the league standings in 2018, 2021, and 2022.

The good news is that being so bad for so long provides the franchise with ample opportunities to get elite players in the WNBA Draft. And that's exactly what happened with the Fever, as they got Kelsey Mitchell with the No. 2 pick in 2018's draft, Lexie Hull with their No. 6 pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft, Aliyah Boston with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft, and Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick on the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Jun 19, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) talks to guard Lexie Hull (left) and forward Aliyah Boston (7) during the third quarter against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Kells Krauskopf Reveals Benefit to Fever Being Bad in the Past

Indiana Fever president of basketball operations Kelly Krauskopf was interviewed by FOX59 News for a December 23 feature video and got honest about how the franchise is now reaping the rewards of the past decade's shortcomings.

"Any time you can get two No. 1 picks in a row, those are generational picks. Those are players that you hope, if you get it right, that are gonna be a part of the fabric of the franchise for a long time. And you know, it can change the trajectory of your team, and of your business. And it certainly has ours," Krauskopf said in the interview.

"I jokingly have said, you know, to get two No. 1 picks, it means that you had some pretty bad years before you got those two No. 1 picks. But certainly worth the opportunity to have and to draft a player like Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark. And these are the moments, as a franchise and as a sports team, you build on, and you hopefully know what happens to get there, but once you get there, it changes the trajectory of your team," she added.

Now the hope is that the Fever can use these successful draft picks to become perennial WNBA championship contenders.