Injury-stricken Fever at crossroads: Should Indiana continue push toward WNBA playoffs or focus on the future?

Indiana fever announced Tuesday that the veteran goalkeeper Sophie Cunningham would be absent for the rest of the season due to a knee injury that occurred on Sunday during the team’s historic victory over the Sun Connecticut. According to the Indianapolis star, Cunningham has torn his MCL.

Cunningham is the third fever player to suffer an injury at the end of the season this month, joining the colleagues guards Aari McDonald (Foot Broken) and Sydney Colson (Torn ACL). The fever also remains without a star caitlin Clark, who has not played since July 15 due to a right -off injury and has no calendar for a return.

Sophie Cunningham Update injury: Fever Guard to Lack the rest of the 2025 season with Torn McL

Carter Bahns

With less than a month remaining in the regular season, the fever occupies sixth place in the standings, with an advance of 2½ games on ninth place in Los Angeles Sparks. Although this is a fairly comfortable cushion, they have the most difficult calendar – highlighted by three clashes against the Lynx of Minnesota at the head of the League – with a percentage of an average opponent victory of 0.593.

The fever has entered the season with championship expectations, but they now have board for them just to keep a place in the playoffs. What raises the question: should the fever still want to make the playoffs, or would it be better to obtain another choice of lottery?

Before the extension, let us examine the advantages and disadvantages of each path.

Make the playoffs

Pro: Give yourself a chance

Losing Cunningham, McDonald and Colson is a hard blow for hopes of the fever qualifiers. Cunningham was their best 3 -point shooter this season and had made 50% absurd of his 3 since the stars break. McDonald was one of their best defenders in the perimeter and allowed them to maintain their style of play without Clark on the ground. And although Colson was probably not going to play much in the playoffs, she was a reliable presence of veteran.

Can fever still win a title this season? Probably not. Will anyone register to play them if Clark is healthy? Probably not.

Clark at its best is one of the largest manufacturers of differences in the league. As much as Clark has experienced difficulties this season, fever is always 8-5 when it plays and has a clear note no longer 9.1 when it is on the ground. If Clark is in good health in the playoffs, fever will have at least one chance – especially with the way Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell play. These three together have a clear note of more than 10.5.

CON: Project piece clearly worse

Due to the WNBA’s two -year -old overall lottery system, the fever will not have big odds when choosing n ° 1 if they fall to the lottery. Most of the years, however, the difference in project niche between a team on half of the lottery and that which has slipped into one of the last places in the playoffs would not be significant.

This year, however, two extension franchises join the mixture, at Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire. Assuming that the League follows the same protocol as last year when the Golden State Valkyries arrived, the tempo and the fire will be put in the 2026 draft after the lottery and before the eliminatory teams.

Thus, if the fever is at the lottery, the worst they can choose is the fifth, but if he makes the qualifying series they can choose is eighth. This is a big difference, even before taking into account the possibility of climbing the lottery or obtaining the seeded n ° 6 or 7 in the playoffs. If the season ended today, the fever would choose 10th.

PRO: More experience in eliminatory series for the nucleus

The fever did the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016, but was swept away in the first round by Connecticut Sun. Due to the best tour of the best of the WNBA, it meant that the first experience of Clark and Co. only lasted two games – which were both on the road.

Two games are nothing in the big scheme of things, and the young nucleus of the fever could really use another experience in the playoffs. Even if the fever was to be eliminated in the first round, a second trip to the playoffs would be beneficial when it is ready to compete for a title.

CON: Clark is in danger of additional injury

Clark was limited to 13 games during its second frustrating season due to three different injuries of soft tissue. She has not played since July 15 due to a problem of the right groin and still has no return calendar.

“It’s daily right now, we are not putting any calendar on it,” said fever coach Stephanie White earlier this month. “”[She is] Go through the rehabilitation process, then we want to reintegrate it from the point of view of strength and conditioning, then bring it back to basketball activities. So we take it one day at a time, the really slow rolling, playing it slow this time … The most important thing for us is the long -term health of Caitlin and bring it to 100% before putting it back on the ground. “”

The team was extremely cautious with Clark during the latter goes out on the sidelines, but it is difficult to imagine a scenario where it stays outside during the playoffs. There would be a risk of re-blue in this scenario, especially if it does not return to 100% at the time of the playoffs.

Lottery trip

PRO: Chance of choice n ° 1

As indicated above, if the fever is at the lottery, they will not have the best ratings due to the two -year -old global system in the League. At the very least, they will be behind the wings of Dallas, Chicago Sky (which owes their choice to the lynx) and the Connecticut Sun (which owes an exchange of choice in the sky).

However, anything can happen if you put yourself in the mixture. Just ask Dallas Mavericks.

In any case, even if the fever did not obtain the choice n ° 1 for the third time in four years, obtaining a choice among the first five would represent an opportunity to add a major talent to their young nucleus. The Restchage 2026 class presents a number of big names, including Azzi Fudd and Flau’jae Johnson, which would both be great crises.

Con: lost season

There is no bypass because it would be a lost season for fever if they miss the playoffs.

After Clark helped end the drought in the playoffs as a recruit, the organization went to this offseason. The front office was revised, White was hired as a coach and the list was reorganized around Clark, Boston and Mitchell. During the training camp, the players were open to their goals to compete for a championship.

Even recognizing the extenuating circumstances – Bonner who left the team, a parade of injuries – missing the playoffs after all this effort and the bravado would be a disaster. Clark’s limited playing time only makes matters worse. It is difficult to make peripheral alignment decisions to the players that players should come back when the coaches and the front-office are not real a real overview of how they adapt alongside Clark.

Pro: Protect Clark against additional injuries

During the training camp, Clark dealt with the waterproofing of the left Quad and sat down at the first pre-season match of the team against the Washington mystics on May 3. A day later, she was in action for her second pre-season match against the Brazilian national team of Carver-Hawkeye Arena on the Iowa campus.

There was no chance that Clark would miss this opportunity, but retrospectively, she should probably not have played. There is no doubt that if the game was elsewhere, it would have withdrawn. Has the Iowa game directly led to its left Quad strain three weeks later against New York freedom? It is impossible to say it with certainty, but that certainly did not help.

Retrospectively, Clark was probably not entirely healthy at any time this season. She has not played more than five games in a row and has been absent for more than a month with her last groin injury. If the fever decided that they agreed with an appearance of lottery and closed it for the rest of the season, it would be the best for its long -term health.

CON: How do free agents react?

The only players who are not on recruit scale agreements which are under contract for 2026 are Kalani Brown and Lexie Brown. All the other veterans have aligned things so that their free agency coincides with a new collective agreement which should provide major salary increases.

The fever will compete for free agents with all the other teams, and everyone will have a lot of ceiling space and list spots. No one knows exactly how this winter will happen – or even when the free agency takes place, given the current work battle – but free agent negotiations will be different from normal.

In the event that fever does not reach the playoffs this season, it is just to wonder how it will affect their free locations. Will players see them as a winning franchise or a team capable of concluding when they have not won a single eliminatory match since 2015? Even if missing the playoffs would not hurt Fever in free agent talks, it would certainly not be help them.