Fever HC Trapped in Disturbingly Popular WNBA Realities After Losing Caitlin Clark for 2025 Season – Report

As Caitlin Clark uploaded her latest Instagram post today, there were no usual happy reactions from fans. Despite recent hopes that she would return after being spotted in 5-on-0 training in August, the bad news was confirmed: Caitlin Clark would miss the remainder of the season. And now, with the reality setting in, the Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White is in a tough situation. 

While it is already unprecedented for a seventh or eighth seed to upset the top two seeds, fans and the Indiana Fever were counting on Caitlin Clark’s return to push them through. However, after the confirmation of her being out the rest of the way, the task is harder than ever. Sure, while they’ll still try to lock in a playoff seed and go as deep as possible, as per WNBA reporter Sabreena Merchant, it might not be that successful of a playoff run for the Fever. 

In the September 5 episode of the No Offseason: The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show podcast, she discussed the Indiana Fever’s prospects with Ben Pickman and said, “I don’t want to like, take away any of their possibilities, but to me, this is a first-round exit team. I don’t really care if they make the eighth seed, seventh seed. Like, this is not a team that is going to challenge Minnesota or Las Vegas without Caitlin Clark available.” 

It might have seemed odd to some that after appearing to make progress, Caitlin was ruled out. However, as per the statement released by the Indiana Fever GM, Amber Cox, the team just ran out of time. Long before the announcements, Stephanie White had strictly said that she wanted to see Caitlin Clark in team practices before she could consider putting her on the floor. And, with such limited time remaining, she was obviously not going to fulfill that condition. Yes, this is certainly a setback to all the eager fans, but the Indiana Fever has been pretty vocal in prioritizing CC’s long-term health over short-term goals. 

Throughout the season, the Fever has faced a barrage of injuries. Once just limited to Caitlin Clark, a single game on August 7 against the Phoenix Mercury seemed to have opened the injury floodgates. Since then, Aari McDonald, Sophie Cunningham, and Sydney Colson have been ruled out for the rest of the season. And now, buried under the heavy news of Caitlin Clark being out, Chloe Bibby has also been ruled out for the rest of the season. With so much turnover in the roster, which has had another addition in Bree Hall, it has been a tough year for Stephanie White as well. 

Brought in to take the Fever to the next level, she has hoped to finalize the team’s rotation by the All-Star break in mid-July 2025. However, due to injuries, her plan was foiled. She was already navigating the void left by Caitlin Clark’s injury. However, with Bibby also ruled out now, she needed to find another player to fill up their rotation. However, their experience with finding players to cover for the ones on the injury list may have made that task easy. 

Indiana Fever re-signs their former draft pick to cover for Chloe Bibby

After the announcements of Caitlin Clark and Chloe Bibby missing the rest of the season, there was just one question: Who would replace them? While for Caitlin’s case, the replacement was already there with Odyssey Sims handling the duty. But to cover for the loss of Chloe Bibby, the Indiana Fever chose to sign a familiar face in Bree Hall. 

Signed in this year’s WNBA draft with the 20th overall pick, Bree was a part of the Indiana Fever throughout the training camp and pre-season. She even made an appearance in Indiana’s exhibition game against the Brazil National Team on May 4. However, with just under two weeks to go from the opening night, she was released by the Fever on May 5, 2025.

After being released, she signed with the Golden State Valkyries and even made three appearances. However, after just two games, she was again waived on June 30. She had a second stint with the Valkyries on a seven-day hardship contract and made a sole appearance against the Washington Mystics. 

Now, owing to Chloe Bibby’s injury, she is back where it all began and will be eager to contribute to Fever’s bid to make the playoffs. While the Fever would’ve been scrambling to make a signing that fits the team best, we can’t help but think that Bree Hall’s experience and familiarity, however little it may be, must have played a crucial role in her signing. 

Now with just three games remaining until the playoffs start, it would be interesting to see if she gets any meaningful playtime and if so, then how she performs to boost her WNBA prospects for next year.