Monique Billings Explains Decision to Sign With Indiana Fever in Free Agency
While much of the Indiana Fever's offseason has been bringing back several of their core players to the team (which they've successfully done), the major addition they made for a player who wasn't on the roster last season was Monique Billings, which was made official on April 11.
Billings is coming off a 2025 campaign with the Golden State Valkyries, where she averaged 7.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Indiana will mark her fifth team in the past four seasons, as she was with the Atlanta Dream in 2023 (which is where she'd played her entire career to that point), then started 2024 with the Dallas Wings before joining the Phoenix Mercury in the middle of that season.
One would imagine that Billings will start at power forward for Indiana, serving as a replacement for Natasha Howard. And the ability she showed as a transition forward with good hands and an ability to catch Caitlin Clark's passes on Team USA for the FIBA Women's World Cup clearly was enough to convince the Fever's front office she was the right fit.
Monique Billings Explains 'Priorities' That Led to Joining Fever
In the Fever's official announcement of this signing on April 11, Billings was quoted as saying, “Fit is one of the most important things in the WNBA, so finding an organization that made me feel wanted and valued was a big factor during this process. At this point in my career, having fun while playing basketball is also very important to me, and Indiana checked all of the boxes.
“I’m looking forward to building off a fruitful offseason including the synergy I gained playing with both Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark during that time, meeting the rest of my teammates and, of course, the fans. Let’s get busy, Indy!” she added.
She shared a similar sentiment with a post to her Instagram story on Saturday, where she said, "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining the Indiana Fever. The vision, the culture, the fit. Those were my priorities going into free agency. Having played with Caitlin Clark at USA, and Kelsey Mitchell in Unrivaled, building off that synergy, I'm hype! I'm lost for words, I'm ready to get to work. I'm excited to be in Indy... Let's get it!"
“The vision, the culture, the fit. Those were my priorities.”
— Grant Young (@GrvntYoung) April 11, 2026
Monique Billings on why she joined the Fever in free agency. Also mentioned the Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell connections this past offseason pic.twitter.com/iXEYHc3uhc
While the Fever still have to fill out their role players (and potentially Sophie Cunningham), this team is already in a great spot heading into the 2026 campaign.
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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