This is going to be disappointing for a lot of Indiana fans or people that are just new fans of the WNBA like me. The bad news is that a lot of the newfound fans are likely going to tune out for the rest of the season, I know that I barely even pay any attention to the scores anymore ever since Indiana became so riddled with injuries.
She has been out for most of the season and returned a while back for a few games and then got benched again because of a groin injury. I don't know the severity of this injury but I would imagine that there is more going on behind the scenes than they are going to tell us about as far as the Fever management is concerned as well as the WNBA as a whole.
When Caitlin disappeared in mid July, it disappointed a lot of fans but the attendance and viewership for the WNBA and especially for the Fever, remained significantly higher than in years past. This is good news for the league, because it shows that while it is just plain obvious that a great many of the fans are watching specifically because of Clark, that a lot of them are going to stick around even once she is not.
Has the viewership died down a bunch? Well to quote some people that live further north than I do "you betcha!" However, the WNBA has been very tight-lipped about this as has the rest of the media who must be working with them to keep this a secret. But if you do see a few games and especially Indiana games, you will notice that there is a distinct difference in the amount of people that are turning up for games, even if Clark is not playing.
It would make Indiana more money for sure if she was playing but we also need to look at the long-term capabilities of playing her when she is not going to have a supporting cast. It's not just CC that is injured, at one point in time every single Indiana guard was sidelines due to injury. It was nice to see that even without her that Indiana did relatively well and won most of their games including an absolute beatdown of rival Chicago in their last game, 97-77.
Without Caitlin they still looked capable on the court against most teams, but even with her on the court I don't think that any reasonable person out there really thought that Indiana had a chance of winning the Championship. Now, with just 2 games remaining, one of which is against what appears to the the heavy favorite to win the Championship (Minnesota), Indiana needs to win one of these games to clinch a playoff spot. They can lose both of them and still make the playoffs if the Los Angles Sparks lose one game as well.
The Sparks have 3 more games and based on records and stats, will likely lose one of them. But nothing is for sure right now and crazy things have been happening.
I think that while it is disappointing to the fans that having Clark sit out the rest of the season is a good idea. She is Indiana's golden child as well as the main reason why anyone started watching WNBA ball in the first place. Indiana also has a 4-year contract with Clark, with the 4th year being an option for Indiana to decide if they wish to extend. I can see not good reason why they wouldn't extend this but there might also be other factors where CC could ask for more money. Any other team would definitely offer it to her but I am not sure how this works. Whatever! The point here is that I think it is a wise decision to have CC sit out the rest of the season and prepare for next year rather than potentially injure her further as she will definitely be strained seeing as how many of her other teammates are also out for the remainder of the season.
I think that most people are just assuming at this point that Minnesota is going to win the tournament and with only 9 losses on the entire season, it is easy to understand why people would think that. I believe that once they secured a playoff spot, likely a month ago, that Minnesota stopped giving 100% because they didn't have to. They were already guaranteed a spot so why not just rest your best?
If Indiana makes it to the playoffs at all, and I believe that they will, I would actually be quite surprised if they made it to the semis and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that they could very well be eliminated in the first round since by finishing last or second-to-last (as far as playoff qualification is concerned) they will end up playing against one of the top teams in the league for the first round. It remains to be seen what that will end up being but as it stands now they will be playing one of the top 3 teams.
Caitlin Clark departing for so long this year has been disappointing for the fans for sure, and for a lot of half-way fans like me, I am sure that many just tuned out altogether once she wasn't playing.
I think that as far as Indiana is concerned, benching her for the rest of the season is the correct choice. Maybe her absence from the 2nd half of the season and quite a lot of the first half of it will convince the WNBA to overhaul their officiating.