Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Indiana Fever enter this season with a revamped roster after an unexpected Semifinals run last year, despite missing star guard Caitlin Clark .
- A key question revolves around whether Myisha Hines-Allen can effectively replace Natasha Howard and maintain the team's offensive spacing.
- Another concern focuses on whether the team's limited frontcourt depth can withstand potential injuries, especially behind Aliyah Boston.
The Indiana Fever made a surprise run to the WNBA Semifinals last season despite star guard Caitlin Clark missing much of the year, including the entire postseason. This offseason, the team has retooled, but there are questions about how that retool will go.
Not counting the obvious question of "will Clark be healthy," here are the three biggest questions about this Fever roster ahead of the 2026 WNBA season.
Can Myisha Hines-Allen be the answer at the 4?
Natasha Howard is gone, and in her place the Fever have added Myisha Hines-Allen and Monique Billings. From a skillset perspective, Hines-Allen is the player who makes the most sense beside Aliyah Boston in the starting lineup, but that still seems like a sizable downgrade from Howard, right?
Hines-Allen's best days feel like a distant memory at this point. Back during the COVID pandemic bubble season, Hines-Allen averaged 17.0 points and 8.9 rebounds per game and made the All-WNBA Second Team, but her production quickly faded after that season. In 2025, Hines-Allen started half of Dallas' games, averaging 7.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.
She's shown some ability to stretch out to the 3-point line, but last season she shot a career-low 26.7 percent from deep. If defenses don't fear her from there, it can really impact the spacing in Indiana.
The other option is to play Monique Billings at the four. I think the ceiling is lower with that option as Hines-Allen has a bit more versatility, but the floor might be higher simply because you usually know what you're getting from Billings.
Either way, this is a clear loss compared to 2025. Howard might not be the same player she was earlier in her career, but she had some shot creation skills and was a versatile defender. You're sacrificing on both ends with the current options, and it's going to make Indiana's path to contention a good bit more difficult.
What kind of role will Raven Johnson have?
I'm fascinated to see how the Fever use rookie guard Raven Johnson, because what she brings to the roster is something that's definitely missing from the starting backcourt of Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell.
What Johnson brings is defense. She excels as an on-ball defender, and that's something that should translate to the WNBA. She's able to consistently put pressure on the ball-handler, creating tough looks for opposing shooters and creating turnovers.
The issue is that Johnson's not necessarily a great offensive player. She can distribute the ball well and her 3-point numbers werre good last season, but it's a little less clear how that will translate vs. her defensive game.
With Clark and Mitchell, the Fever don't necessarily need their third guard to be someone who can create her own shot, but they do need someone who can knock down open looks. If Johnson proves she can be that person, she'll get plenty of run thanks to her defensive ability, but if she ends up as a liability on offense, the Fever might not be able to look past that. For what it's worth, I lean toward the former — I don't think she'll be a great offensive player in the pro game, but I think she can take what the defense gives her.
Is there enough depth in the frontcourt?
As it stands, the Fever have just six players on the roster who are capable of playing the four or the five, and one of those is Sophie Cunningham, who really only would be at the four in situations where the team wants to go small. Another is Makayla Timpson, who averaged 7.1 minutes per game last season and doesn't figure to be a huge part of the rotation.
That leaves four names: Hines-Allen and Billings, who are essentially your power forwards, and Aliyah Boston and Damiris Dantas, who are essentially your centers.
It's not the deepest unit, but I think the talent at the five a lot. Boston is obviously one of the league's elite centers, and I think you can make a strong argument that having Dantas behind her gives the team the best one-two punch at the five in the league. I've already highlighted the issues with the Hines-Allen/Billings situation, but I think you can definitely survive with those two.
The worry is that injuries would put the team in a bad spot. Last season, we saw that play out in the backcourt, as the Fever ended up playing multiple players at guard and wing in the postseason who hadn't started the season with the team. Without those injury issues, Indiana might have had a better shot at making the WNBA Finals. It appears they're reinforced the backcourt this season, but now are in danger of suffering the same fate in the frontcourt.
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