So, lads, today I got to talk about something and it’s something that’s really, really, really, really, really, really annoying me. And it’s people like, “Oh, Caitlin Clark, she’ll never be good until she gets better off the ball.” Like, stop taking her off the ball then. Like, she is bad off the ball.
She is not Stephen Curry. And for anyone, and I mean this, if you know basketball, anyone saying, “Oh, but she played off the ball at Iowa, her teammates just got her the ball back.” That’s the same thing as playing on the ball. I’m sorry, but just because somebody dribbles the ball up to the halfway line and your team runs a double pin down for you to get the ball back and be in the exact same position as you would be in if you dribbled to the halfway line.
Just because a team takes pressure off you getting the ball to the halfway line just so that you can get the ball back in the same position as you would have gotten it by dribbling to the halfway line does not make you an off-the-ball player. Just because you can come off an occasional floppy set or floppy action or some pin downs into a spot-up three doesn’t mean you’re an off-the-ball player.
It means you’re able to run into a shot. The Indiana Fever do not run quick hitters. They don’t. So, taking the “Oh, you need to run some plays to go and get Caitlin Clark off the ball and get her the ball back.” That does not happen. The Indiana Fever runs some form of a continuous motion offense with the attitude of the right pass is the player that is open.
That is the way the Indiana Fever are. That is the way they play. That is the way they played last year. That is how they play. And if you look at it, like I saw Venom breaking down clips and it’s like, “Oh, Sophie’s not giving the ball to Caitlin.” Well, it’s like, yeah. Because Caitlin is being face guarded and someone else is open.
That is the way the Fever initiate their half-court offense. That is the way the Fever play in the half court. It is not going to change. It was the same last year. Caitlin Clark, when she does not have the ball in her hands, is playing decoy. She could be the greatest cutter in the world. She is being face guarded.
There’s not going to be any screen set for her unless the ball gets to a big on either of the elbows or elbows extended and she comes off looking for a handoff. She is not getting the ball. She could be the greatest player in the world. Teams are willing to go four on four to keep the ball out of her hands.
And the Indiana Fever are gladly willing to not run anything to get her in a position to get the ball back. Not intentionally, anyway. Their entire offense is a motion offense with a couple of set principles based on read and react. And anybody who plays basketball knows if you are trying to read and react, you are not going to throw a pass that could lead to a turnover, which is what it is going to take to get the ball back into Caitlin Clark’s hands.
What Iowa ran when Caitlin Clark was off the ball, when Kate Martin took it up or Gabby Marshall took it up, is they ran whatever it was just to get Caitlin a little bit of ease to get the ball back in her hands. And the Indiana Fever did that in 2024. Post Olympic break, if Caitlin ever gave the ball up, the goal was get the ball back into Caitlin Clark.
She made the decisions. The decisions were being made by Caitlin and Aliyah Boston. Right now at the Indiana Fever, the decisions are being made by whoever has the ball. There’s a big difference between that. And what does that mean for Caitlin Clark? She’s not very good when she doesn’t have the ball in her hands a lot.
And can we just not talk about players doing no wrong. It’s like me saying LeBron James isn’t very good if his teammates don’t pass him the ball. No, he’s not Kevin Durant. It’s like trying to play Caitlin in the Steph Curry role is like trying to play LeBron James as Kevin Durant.
It’s not going to work. As an isolation mid-range shooter, it’s not going to work. It’s like trying to play Paige Bueckers in Vic Schaefer’s role. It’s not going to work. It’s like trying to get Aliyah Boston to play like A’ja Wilson. It’s not going to work. Every player plays their own way except one player is not being allowed to play their own way because it is this weird thing.
And by the way, I don’t necessarily think Stephanie White’s wrong. I don’t necessarily think she’s wrong because she’s had success in her career. She’s a significantly better coach than I am. She’s a significantly better coach than anyone watching this. And we have to move from Stephanie White being wrong to this is Caitlin Clark will not be good in this system.
They’re two very different conversations to have. Because what happens? We saw it yesterday and we’ve seen it in every single game where Caitlin Clark has played off the ball. And we’ve seen it since 2024. What does Caitlin Clark do? How does Caitlin Clark play at her best? Through rhythm.
So, when Caitlin Clark is at her best it is when she is playing fast, she has the ball in her hands, she’s allowed to make decisions. Caitlin Clark, we saw yesterday in the first quarter when the ball is in her hands, where the team is playing up tempo, where the team is playing at the pace that she wants, she has seven points on I think it was two of three shooting in the first quarter. She had two assists and two boards.
She had two more assists and missed seven shots after that. Because when Caitlin doesn’t touch the ball this is what she does. She starts dancing.
So, if Caitlin takes the ball up and gives it up, the team runs whatever motion offense they run for three and four possessions. Caitlin then gets the ball. You know what she is doing. Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, step back deep three. Is it going in? No. It’s not.
I have called them since her rookie year frustration shots. When Caitlin Clark is told to play decoy, she takes frustration shots. Why? Because Caitlin Clark is a rhythm player. Caitlin Clark is somebody who is a system. She is not a system player.
And not only that, she cannot fit into a system. There is enough footage out there to know that in a system that is not a system that has her dominating the ball, Caitlin Clark is a decoy. That is what she is.
The way that she is guarded, she doesn’t have the feel for playing off the ball that a Paige Bueckers has. She doesn’t have that feel. And people are like, “Oh, they went to UConn.” Yeah, well, neither of them are even remotely close to being the same player as Caitlin Clark is with the ball in her hand, which means significantly more.
But instead of turning her into Steph Curry, it’s Steve Nash is what she is. And anyone being like, “Oh, Steve Nash never won a title.” Yeah, because it’s Steve Nash’s fault.
They’re about to win a title in 2005 and Robert Sarver doesn’t want to pay Joe Johnson because he doesn’t want to pay over the tax. So, he lets Joe Johnson walk. And then the draft that year, he kept selling their draft picks for money.
I’m pretty sure they traded a pick that became Luol Deng, an All-Star, and Rajon Rondo, an All-Star, for money. They traded two All-Stars for money.
If they did that, is it Caitlin Clark’s fault if her owner kept selling draft picks and any player who wanted money said, “No, we’re not paying them.”
And also, the fact is they were going to win in 2007 and then two of his best teammates jumped up off the bench and got suspended for the most important game of the season. Earlier on in the game he got hip-checked into the scorers’ table.
So, he got hip-checked into the scorers’ table during the series and then got his nose busted and had to sit out.
If Caitlin Clark loses a ring because in the finals she gets her nose busted and then going into game seven of the finals Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell both get themselves suspended, then you can’t say, “Oh, Caitlin Clark can’t win with that style.”
I hate seeing this because Caitlin’s not very good at it. We can be real here. It is very, very clear. Caitlin Clark is an engine. She is the offensive engine.
And that’s what every team has said. Every team has said if you listen to teams that face off against the Fever, they’re like, “Well, Caitlin Clark’s the head of the snake. If we slow down Caitlin Clark we can beat the Fever.”
And it’s not even about slowing down Caitlin Clark’s scoring.
Because if you look at when Caitlin Clark really took over, it was when she averaged 13 or 14 assists per game for a month. Because the Indiana Fever, nobody knew how to guard the Fever. They just run, run, run, run, run.
And then suddenly in the playoffs, Christie Sides was like, “Well, this style’s not going to work, so we’re going to stop running.”
And the difference is that this team can actually play gritty half-court basketball. She’s not good enough off the ball. Caitlin Clark is not good enough as a spot-up shooter to be on the floor with her level of defense.
Because you are better off playing 5v5 with Caitlin sitting on the bench and replacing her with Lexie or Sophie than you are playing 4v4 on offense with Caitlin as decoy and having Caitlin on the defensive end working her ass off while being face guarded to do nothing.
Because what happens then when Caitlin Clark comes back onto the floor or when Caitlin Clark is on the floor as a decoy, every time she touches the ball, she’s going to chuck the ball for a crazy attempt at an assist. She’s going to shoot a step back and brick it.
Why? Because if you watch every game Caitlin Clark plays, her scoring comes in spells. Caitlin Clark, if she gives you 20 points, she never gives you five points in every quarter.
She might give you 14 in a quarter, not score for nine minutes, give you eight in another quarter, not score for nine minutes, and then go on a solo 10-0 run to end the game.
That is the thing with Caitlin Clark. She goes through 10-15 minute spells in games where she’s the best player in the world. Everything she touches comes off. She’s freeing up teammates for open shots every single possession.
And the difference is that the Fever don’t make that their A game anymore. And I don’t think the Fever are good enough to win without that being their A game.
Nor do I think Caitlin Clark is good enough to play 30 minutes if that’s not their A game.
We’re in a situation where it’s very, very clear that if the Indiana Fever are running what Stephanie White wants them to run, they are better without Caitlin Clark.
If the Indiana Fever are winging it, running in transition, playing free-flowing, and allowing Caitlin Clark and Aliyah to get into the pick-and-roll, which by the way is not the motion offense Stephanie White wants, they do it anyway.
She’s not sabotaging the Fever. If Aliyah and Caitlin are killing teams in the pick-and-roll, she’s not going to take the ball out of Caitlin’s hands. She’s not telling Caitlin to stop running the pick-and-roll and run the play.
But it is very, very clear Caitlin Clark goes against what Stephanie White wants her to do.
And it’s one of these things where I think for the Fever to win the WNBA championship Caitlin Clark has to be Steve Nash. Aliyah Boston has to be Amare Stoudemire. Kelsey Mitchell has to be Shawn Marion.
It has to be we are running everything through Caitlin and Aliyah.
We saw yesterday there is a certain thing when you have two of the best decision makers in the league in Caitlin and Aliyah running an offense where everybody’s empowered to make decisions. I don’t think it works with that.
Because if Caitlin is being denied and Shekinna Walker-Kimbrough is not being denied, the other team is trying to get the ball into Shekinna Walker-Kimbrough’s hands. The Indiana Fever players will pass the ball to Shekinna Walker-Kimbrough.
That is the issue. And it’s nothing to do with the players. It is a motion offense, everyone eats system without the personnel to run it.
And by the way, you know who else kind of suffers in that motion offense? The players that suffer in that motion offense most are one, Caitlin Clark, two, Aliyah Boston.
It doesn’t suit Aliyah either. Aliyah Boston is a pick-and-roll big. And that is what she has become.
We saw it in Unrivaled. She is a pick-and-roll big. She is an offensive hub. Yes, she can bang down low. But at the weight Aliyah Boston’s at right now she does not bang down low like she used to.
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