Caitlin Clark is currently dealing with a groin injury. It was bad enough to keep her out of the All-Star Game and appears to still be lingering heading into the second half of the season, with the Fever star not expected to play Tuesday night against the Liberty. Head coach Stephanie White says that Clark is going to get a second opinion on the groin injury.
This leaves Indiana in a tough spot. Obviously, you want Clark on the floor if you can get her on the floor. She's a game-shifting talent who can make or break the remainder of the season for the team.
However, you don't want to press her back into action too soon and risk worsening the injury. Clark's long-term future needs to be accounted for as well.
So, what are the Fever supposed to do?
The Fever have to keep Caitlin Clark healthy, but they also need to win
Holding Clark out against New York makes sense. Clark needs to be healthy before she gets back out on the floor. In fact, I'd argue that the Fever need to do whatever they can to keep Clark on the sidelines until they know she's in a spot where playing won't aggravate the injury.
Forget any arguments about ratings. Forget any concerns about playoff seeding. Clark is simply too important to the future of the Fever franchise to let her risk further injury at this point.
Clark has already dealt with four muscle-related injuries this year. Something is clearly off, and the Fever need to take a very slow approach here as they make sure Clark is really ready to hit the floor again.
Besides, while losing Clark for an extended time might seem like a death knell to the Fever's playoff chances, I'm not so sure that's really the case.
Looking at some lineup data, the Fever could be fine without Clark. Now, I mean "fine" in probably the worst way I could mean it, because they aren't going to thrive without their best player, but they can still be a playoff squad.
Look at the on/off data. The Fever are much worse with Clark off the floor, but they still have a +1.63 net rating with her sidelined. Sure, that's a far cry from the +9.74 net rating with her on the court, but it isn't the end of the world. Indiana still outscores its opponents with Clark off the court.
The margin for error just drops significantly, so Indiana will have to be on its A-game every night. But as long as Clark can come back at some point this year, the team should be fine. Having Clark for the postseason makes this a very dangerous team.
Now, one unanswered question is how long the Fever can afford to hold Clark out if they intend to have her back for postseason play. You want her back out there to get some tune-up minutes at some point, right? And it's hard to know when the best moment for that is.
It might not matter, though. Maybe Clark gets a second opinion, misses a week or two more, and is then right back out there on the floor at close to 100 percent. I don't know! I'm not a medical doctor, and I don't think a PhD in English qualifies me to make medical decisions.
But one thing is clear: the Fever are in a tough spot. They just need to hold the line and resist external pressure to play Clark before she's ready to get back on the floor.