Caitlin Clark is the golden-child point guard for sure but every superstar needs a backup. The Indiana Fever had two backups for Caitlin in Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald and in a terrible twist of fate, both of these women suffered season-ending injuries in a game against the Phoenix Mercury, where they were defeated badly by 35 points.
It was evident that this game was going to be a route early in the 3rd quarter and by the time the 4th came around there wasn't even that much hustle on the court because it was over, everyone knew it was over.
The problem wasn't losing that game though, the problem is that as of right now, Indiana doesn't even have a point guard since Caitlin Clark is still sitting out with an injury herself.
Colson went down late in the 1st quarter and had to be helped off the court. It was later revealed that she has torn her left ACL and well, that isn't just something you ice up and get back out there. She will not see another minute of playtime this season. Aari McDonald, who, and I mean no offense by this, isn't exactly a superstar in the WNBA, went in to fill the point guard position, did reasonably well consider the slaughter that was taking place at the time, and herself went down in the 4th and had to be helped up. It is unclear what her injury is at the moment but it has been said that it is season-ending.
This leaves the Indiana Fever without any point guards and it remains to be seen if they will apply for their second "emergency hardship contract" in the coming weeks. At the moment they do not have the minimum number of eligible players on their active squad and while there was some hope that Caitlin would be ready for their upcoming game against Dallas, the Fever have listed her as injured.
So what do they do now? I mean it sounds wonderful that they can just go out there an pick up any free agent point guard that they want but this isn't going to turn magically into some sort of team cohesion, it takes a very long time to learn the chemistry of other players on the team. You could just say that give the rock to Kelsey Mitchell but by doing that you are taking her out of her position of shooting guard where she has been absolutely shining recently.
it's impossible to guess what Indiana is going to do with just 12 games left in the season but while they might not admit it, simply riding out the rest of the year and rebuilding for next year might not be a terrible idea. I suppose they could throw some free agent in there and see what happens but the last thing they want to do is put CC back out there before she is ready and injure her yet again.
It was a bit amusing that even without a point guard The Fever rolled over Chicago like it was nothing to them. Chicago truly is terrible.
The really bad news here though is probably for Aari McDonald who was seeing a bit of a resurgence in her career after being released by the LA Sparks after the 2024 season. She was doing quite well with Indiana as a backup but with injury, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were to just release her at the end of the season since a torn ACL is something that tends to come back to haunt you and at 26 years of age she is likely considered too much of a liability to rehabilitate.