Indiana Fever 2024

[rmontro]

Costly game for the Fever. A win would have pushed them past Chicago and Atlanta. Instead, the loss takes them out of a playoff spot "If the season ended today" altogether.

[MrDollarBills]

Costly game for the Fever. A win would have pushed them past Chicago and Atlanta. Instead, the loss takes them out of a playoff spot "If the season ended today" altogether.

It's early though. It will be fun to watch the race for 8th after the break

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^this is going to be very interesting

[jc23]

Cmon Clarke you have to take these shots.

Reminds me of LeBron early in his career he was scared to take those shots.

lebron built that reputation over the course of years.

Some of these late game wnba situations can get a bit helter-skelter.

I'm just saying she's the best shot maker on the team. Fans want to see her in those moments.

I agree. Caitlin has a collection of clutch shots on her resume.

[MrDollarBills]

lebron built that reputation over the course of years.

Some of these late game wnba situations can get a bit helter-skelter.

I'm just saying she's the best shot maker on the team. Fans want to see her in those moments.

I agree. Caitlin has a collection of clutch shots on her resume.

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

What they were doing in the last 5 minutes of that game was not the style of Fever ball that we had seen as of late.

[rmontro]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

[MrDollarBills]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

If Clark is going off ball, there has to be actions in place to capitalize off of that. You have a right to be frustrated. Every time she gives up the ball she's just standing in one spot. It makes it VERY easy to defend when she's not moving.

If she moves once she gives up the ball, gets screens set for her, etc, that will cause the defense to focus on HER and not on where the ball actually is. This creates holes defensively that can be exploited.

There has to be a balance. CC doesn't need to have the ball in her hands every time down the floor but the times when she doesn't, and she just stands in a corner or top of the key being stationary, that is a blown opportunity

[rmontro]

There has to be a balance. CC doesn't need to have the ball in her hands every time down the floor but the times when she doesn't, and she just stands in a corner or top of the key being stationary, that is a blown opportunity

Sometimes she will run around in a circle, and sometimes she will even call for the ball, but no one hardly passes it to her.
Sides seems to have no idea how to use Clark, one wonders why they drafted her. The Fever office doesn't seem to be working together, they're all going in different directions.

[hermes]

There has to be a balance. CC doesn't need to have the ball in her hands every time down the floor but the times when she doesn't, and she just stands in a corner or top of the key being stationary, that is a blown opportunity

Sometimes she will run around in a circle, and sometimes she will even call for the ball, but no one hardly passes it to her.
Sides seems to have no idea how to use Clark, one wonders why they drafted her. The Fever office doesn't seem to be working together, they're all going in different directions.

their hands were kind of tied. they had the top pick in a draft with a clear consensus first pick

[MrDollarBills]

There has to be a balance. CC doesn't need to have the ball in her hands every time down the floor but the times when she doesn't, and she just stands in a corner or top of the key being stationary, that is a blown opportunity

Sometimes she will run around in a circle, and sometimes she will even call for the ball, but no one hardly passes it to her.
Sides seems to have no idea how to use Clark, one wonders why they drafted her. The Fever office doesn't seem to be working together, they're all going in different directions.

I think this is a case of organizational incompetence more than malice. Bad teams are bad for a reason.

[Wingy]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

Maybe it’s not enough to make people happy, but I’ve definitely noticed more screens to free her up for 3s offball. A few sets where she’s the screener then gets a screen set for her.

Why they didn’t run even those fairly simple actions early in the season, who knows. But there is at least some progress from where they started.

[MrDollarBills]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

Maybe it’s not enough to make people happy, but I’ve definitely noticed more screens to free her up for 3s offball. A few sets where she’s the screener then gets a screen set for her.

Why they didn’t run even those fairly simple actions early in the season, who knows. But there is at least some progress from where they started.

I think the frustration stems from the Fever going away from everything that brought them back into the playoff race. I didn't see the off ball screens or any of the plays used to make the defense choose between giving CC a wide open shot or getting blasted in the paint by AB.

[Ghetto Gospel]

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

Maybe it’s not enough to make people happy, but I’ve definitely noticed more screens to free her up for 3s offball. A few sets where she’s the screener then gets a screen set for her.

Why they didn’t run even those fairly simple actions early in the season, who knows. But there is at least some progress from where they started.

I think the frustration stems from the Fever going away from everything that brought them back into the playoff race. I didn't see the off ball screens or any of the plays used to make the defense choose between giving CC a wide open shot or getting blasted in the paint by AB.

they had that huge run in the 3rd cause they just gave her the ball and let her cook.

then in the 4th they decided to just give everyone else touches with the huge lead, blew the huge lead, and never gave her the ball back the whole time. it makes no sense

[rmontro]

These next couple games should tell us a lot about where the team is. Winning covers up a lot of problems, and that bad loss brought them to earth fast.

[LewisnotMiller]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

It would be nice to include her in the action in a meaningful way, even if she's not initiating with ball in hand. Using her as a screener in a small-small action, with bigs spacing wide instead, or similar would be an interesting wrinkle.

[LewisnotMiller]

This is where coaching matters. They have to start running some off ball actions for CC to get open or draw enough gravity that the defense leaves someone open.

It seems like they don't have any plays for her to score, other than having her go stand in the corner for a pass that never comes. If Clark wants to take a shot, she has to manufacture it for herself.
What's worse, Sides took the ball out of her and hands and had Wheeler bring up the ball. Seems like better things happen when the ball is in Clark's hands. This may sound bitter, but this is seriously starting to get frustrating.

Maybe it’s not enough to make people happy, but I’ve definitely noticed more screens to free her up for 3s offball. A few sets where she’s the screener then gets a screen set for her.

Why they didn’t run even those fairly simple actions early in the season, who knows. But there is at least some progress from where they started.

Yes...agreed it has been better.
Also, as someone who has only really watched the W at a more than casual level for a couple of seasons, I have to adjust my brain to account for the lack of lead-in time they had pre-season.

[Ice Man]

Maybe it’s not enough to make people happy, but I’ve definitely noticed more screens to free her up for 3s offball. A few sets where she’s the screener then gets a screen set for her.

Quite a bit more. Over the past 5 games, she has scored half her 3s on catch-and-shoots. Not coincidentally, she is shooting 42% on 3s over that period. Those shots are quite a bit easier than her normal 9.8 degree of difficulty attempts, when she's off the dribble.

While I agree with what has been written that she is not being used well off the ball, I am less critical of the Fever/Sides than are some. I mean, this is a huge adjustment for the existing crowd. The Fever players weren't used to running off the ball for the team's PG, nor was it used to thinking about its PG as an off-the-ball scorer. Clark's Iowa team had a LONG time to build its system around her. The Fever is 2 months into that process.

To put the matter another way, the Fever look a LOT better than those awful first few games.

That's not really a defense of Sides, more of an explanation. I don't think any coach, no matter how good, would have the Fever & Clark completely in sync by this stage. Whether Sides should have done better, I don't know.

[rmontro]

Watched the game on Prime, but fell asleep in the second half. The Storm is good this year, but still irritating to watch the Fever get their butts kicked again. I thought they might come out more motivated after that painful loss to the Sky, but apparently not. Need to win Sunday or they're going to have a big run of losses.

[MrDollarBills]

I watched the highlights. Jewel Loyd absolutely roasted the Fever.

[Ice Man]

My last post was too optimistic. The Fever has moments where it looks like a unit, but generally against opposition and those moments don't last for long. Last night exposed them once again. This is not a team. It's a collection of players on the court.

[jc23]

Fever released Celeste Taylor; dont remember seeing her much this season.