One player who many people, especially WNBA fans and Team USA supporters, wanted to see more than any other in the ongoing FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup is Caitlin Clark. And judging from the ability and skill level she possesses, as well as the level of performances she has been churning out all season, it seemed quite certain that she already had a place secured in Team USA’s starting lineup. However, that has not been the case in any of the three group-stage games that Team USA has played so far in this tournament. And as it appears, that will continue to be the case, at least for their next game, the quarterfinal clash against Hungary on Thursday.

Speaking in a training-ground interview, a video of which OutKick shared on its X page, Team USA head coach Kara Lawson maintained that she is quite happy with the starting lineup she is currently fielding, suggesting that there is no reason to alter it yet in favor of Caitlin Clark.

“I think that our starting group has done a really good job of getting us off to good starts,” Coach Lawson said when asked if she was considering Caitlin Clark for a starting spot in the next game. “You know, rotationally from game to game we could change things, but I like where we are right now.”

The interviewer even asked if she was considering either Angel Reese or Paige Bueckers for a starting spot too, and she maintained the same stance.

“I like where we are right now,” she said.

In all three group-stage games that Team USA has played so far in this tournament, against China, Italy, and then Czechia, Coach Kara Lawson has maintained the same veteran-rich starting lineup. She has gone with a five of Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper, Breanna Stewart, and Napheesa Collier.

To a large extent, it is safe to say that lineup has worked, at least in the two games in which Team USA played relatively well: their 94-61 win over China and 105-64 win over Czechia. Against Italy, however, where Team USA performed quite poorly and ended up with a 42-year low in scoring, the fact that the whole team was quite underwhelming makes it difficult to pin the blame on the choice of the starting lineup.

To be fair, Coach Kara Lawson has done quite a good job rotating the team and spreading the minutes quite well. In fact, in the first game against China, even though Caitlin Clark did not start, she ended up playing the highest number of minutes for Team USA, recording a record-breaking 14-point and 11-assist performance. She currently leads Team USA in total minutes played, averaging 21.9 per game. In the same vein, their third game against Czechia also saw every single player on the team play at least 10 minutes, with every player registering at least one point.

However, regardless of how involved Clark has seemed so far and how well distributed the minutes have been, there seems to be a reasonably strong case to be made for Caitlin Clark to be in the starting lineup ahead of Chelsea Gray, who has been taking the spot as the starting point guard. Clark is comfortably outperforming Gray across almost every metric.

She leads Team USA and ranks third overall in the entire tournament with 6.3 assists per game, acting as the absolute engine of the offense when on the floor. On the other hand, Gray’s production has been uncharacteristically quiet, averaging just 1.0 assist per game. Caitlin Clark is also currently averaging 8.0 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Gray is delivering an average of 3.6 points with no rebounds recorded so far.

Each game without Caitlin Clark in the starting lineup has attracted criticism directed toward Coach Lawson. And while she might seem to have a reasonable enough reason for why she has chosen to do so, it is also quite clear that the criticism of her choice has not been without substantiation or born only out of the fandom that Caitlin Clark commands quite well.