Sitting on a couch with her teammates – Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and DeWanna Bonner – Caitlin Clark asked– “What’s my favorite spot to shoot from?” Easy! Right?! Within seconds, all three flipped their white boards and revealed– “Logo.” Since her junior year, when she first came into the spotlight, the classic No. 22 from the University of Iowa has been connected to pulling up from a distance that not even some outstanding NBA shooters can. Her logo-3s gained such traction that every WNBA team now has a ‘Half-court shooting contest’ in their practices. This season, the league is literally measuring the length of all her three-pointers– which in her returning win against New York earlier this week accounted for 178 feet for 7 three-pointers made. But what is her favorite thing to do on the court? Fair warning– Fans believe, and we agree: “It’s next level.”

We know Clark’s shooting, pace, and basketball IQ always helps her team’s offense, creating a majority of points in any of their games. But for her, it’s what’s “usually overlooked” – her passes. Threading the needle? Check. Go-ahead passes? Easy! Finding that one Fever teammate’s hand in the paint full of opponents? Don’t even ask! Just look at these stats:

• As a rookie, she became the first player ever in the WNBA to lead both in the NCAA (8.9 assists per game) and also in their first season in the league (8.4 apg). 
• She made a whopping 19 assists, highest ever, in Fever’s pre-Olympics 101-93 loss to the Dallas Wings.
• Clark set the record with 337 total assists in a single season last year.
• Last season, she became the only rookie in league’s 28 years to have not just one, but 2 triple-doubles in their first season in the WNBA.
• Caitlin Clark currently leads the league with 8.7 assists per game, despite missing 5 games due to left quad injury.

The “elite point guard” changed the game with her “where did that come from?” passes, to the point that opposing teams don’t plan on how to stop her from scoring, but how to take away one thing that will help her involve her entire team and explode– her assists. And that’s exactly what Dawn Staley, having gone against her twice on the Big Dance stage, absolutely loves about her, as she reveals in Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast.

“I only coached against Caitlin twice, right? Both times, she had over 30, right? I don’t know if there’s a player that I coached against had 30 points against us in the two times that they played, one’s a win, one’s a loss. I will say, she’s probably the most difficult to scout. To play against. She can beat you in a variety of ways. She can beat you with her, obviously, her three-point shot. But for me, the most dangerous thing of Caitlin Clark is her passing ability. Her ability to make other people better. Her ability to have, you know, other people’s production along with her production. That’s how you win. If you could get somebody to produce along with her…”

She’s not just saying that for kicks. Staley broke it down, especially from the two times her squad faced Iowa in the tournament. Turns out, the game plan wasn’t to stop Clark from scoring, it was to keep her from doing everything else. “That was our emphasis when we won, when we beat them [Iowa]… We said Caitlin Clark’s gonna get 30. But she can’t have 12 assists. Because if she’s got 12 assists, then she’s involving her teammates in a way that doesn’t quite add up. We can’t produce enough points like they can.”

And like Staley noted, in Gamecocks’ 2023 Final Four loss against the Hawkeyes, Clark pulled for unbelievable 41 points with 8 assists. Next season, in Iowa’s NCAA Championship Game defeat against them, she added up 30 points to go with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. So, the assists did reduce even if by just 3.

Completely fair. Because if you’ve watched Clark, you already know – once she taps into her playmaker mode, it’s game over. She’s basically the engine that runs the entire Fever offense. Last year was all about the bounce passes in traffic to Aliyah Boston, one-handed lobs to Kelsey Mitchell, and seemingly every other basket ended with the Gainbridge Fieldhouse booming, “… from Clark!” One of her finest moments? That historic triple-double. Clark put up 19 points, 13 assists, and 12 boards in a comeback win, dishing out dimes like it was candy as the entire arena stood up, giving her the much-deserved standing ovation.

Even then, she turned the spotlight to her teammates. “My teammates have been finishing the ball at a really, really high rate. My assist numbers, that’s because of them.” Also, don’t forget that absolute masterclass she had against Mercury. “She has got a crazy eye for her teammates and where they are, and moving, and she’s able to make passes that some people [can’t],” former Fever head coach Christie Sides said back then.

The chemistry was unreal. Kelsey Mitchell, at one point, didn’t even wait for the ball to land before jumping for the bucket. Clark hit her with a bounce pass from the elbow, and Mitchell caught it mid-air and laid it in. And Clark’s been doing this for years. The vision’s always been there. It just took some time to get used to the physicality and system in the W.

Fast forward to now, she’s averaging 8.7 assists per game. In her comeback game vs the New York Liberty, she dropped 32 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds. She led a 25–3 run that flipped the entire game. Clark directly contributed to 54 points – half of that off assists alone. That’s ‘Floor General’ energy. That’s leadership!

So, when Staley says Clark is the engine of the Fever, she means it. But does Staley think there’s a weakness in Clark’s game? 

Dawn Staley’s real talk, what Caitlin Clark’s fans need to hear

There’s no doubt about it…Caitlin Clark has brought a tidal wave of new fans into women’s basketball. From her long-range logo threes to her flashy, jaw-dropping assists, she’s been the center for a while now. Since the Indiana Fever drafted her No. 1 overall in 2024, Clark has been lighting up the league and taking WNBA viewership right along with her.

But according to the South Carolina head coach, that fanbase might need a quick little reality check. “I think she’s quite an anomaly when it comes to how many eyeballs she’s bringing on the game — and new eyeballs,” Staley said during her June 19 appearance on Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast. “The newness of those eyeballs only want her to do well. Only want you to speak very highly of her, only want you to agree with what they agree with. And that’s kind of hard when we are critics to everyone who plays the game. It’s a part of the fabric of sports. That’s what we do.”

Staley knows Clark’s game. She coached against her twice, and both times she saw what Clark could do up close. But love and praise aside, Staley said it’s a coach’s job to find the flaws and game plan around them. Clark has some. “She’s a risk taker when it comes to passing the ball. She’ll turn the ball over some, and that’s a great thing if you’re her opposition.” And through her very first game in the professional league, we have seen this.

In her very first WNBA matchup against the Connecticut Sun, the then-rookie added 20 points in a losing cause. But she also had 10 TOs; that too only on 3 assists. That’s a very wrong ratio to have if you are her team. Not just that, the theme that always eclipsed her, still does, has been her turnovers. In fact, Sides had asked her to be more selfish and take more shots instead of passing the ball to her teammates. Still, she led the league last year with 5.6 TOs. This season as well, turnovers have been an issue for the entire Fever squad, with Clark still leading with 5.3 TOs per game; a stat no one wants to lead in.

Still, this isn’t about tearing Clark down. In fact, Staley made it super clear that everyone gets critiqued. Even her former player, two-time MVP A’ja Wilson. “No one plays the game perfectly. No one,” Staley said. She shared how she criticizes Wilson’s game too and she’s gotten better with certain areas.

The takeaway is, if fans want Clark to grow into everything she can be, they’ve got to accept the good and the growth areas. And when someone like Dawn Staley – who’s been there, done that, and raised champions – is offering some honest perspective, it’s worth listening.