With their performances this season, Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark established themselves as the highest-scoring backcourt duo in WNBA history. That synergy, which reached its absolute peak this season, has existed since Clark joined the franchise in 2024. Mitchell now has the option to walk away from it, as she enters free agency as an unrestricted free agent who is not core-eligible for the first time in her career.

Drafted as the second overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever, Kelsey Mitchell has spent her entire nine-year WNBA career with the same franchise. And perhaps, the idea of exploring opportunities elsewhere around the league sounds quite understandable now. However, whatever decision the veteran guard ultimately makes, the success she has enjoyed alongside Clark in Indiana is difficult to overlook.

“Oh, I think that kind of speaks for itself in terms of our success,” Mitchell said when asked about her chemistry with Caitlin Clark during the Fever exit interview. “We got the best duo thing people talked about for a while. And so those kinds of things speak for itself. I think she is an unbelievable point guard, man. I think that her success is gonna be her success. And I think our ability to have chemistry was just off us both loving the game.”

Though Mitchell hinted at a potential shift in professional priorities, Clark’s game will always have a special place in her heart.

“But I think as I get older, it’s just gonna be things I’ve got to kind of figure out for myself. But ultimately, I love this program. I love C, I love having a backcourt with C, and so that’ll obviously be important to me whenever I make decisions because it was good basketball being played,” she added.

Playing for the Indiana Fever this season, Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark combined for a historic run that broke multiple league records. They averaged a combined 47 points per game this season, with Mitchell at 24.7 points per game and Clark at 22.3 points per game, the highest average for any duo in WNBA history. They also powered Indiana to a historic 115.0 offensive rating, two points per 100 possessions clear of the 2023 Aces, which held the record at 113.0.

While the impact of this partnership reached a fever pitch this season, Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell’s synergy has been a key part of the Fever’s success since Clark’s first season. In their first year together, they became the first teammates in WNBA history to each hit 100 or more three-pointers in a single season. They also both averaged over 19 points per game, while Clark won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award that season.

That chemistry also continued into the second year, although Mitchell ended up operating without Clark for the majority of the season due to injuries that limited Clark to the sidelines. So it has been quite clear that this is a partnership that works.

In fact, for Mitchell, this has been the best season of her career individually. She broke the WNBA single-season scoring record with 1,086 points and set a WNBA record by scoring 20 or more points in 27 consecutive games. Her scoring average is also the highest she has recorded in her nine-year WNBA career.

Regardless of the partnership, chemistry, and success, however, there are a lot more factors that will go into Mitchell’s eventual decision to leave or re-sign with the Indiana Fever. And she has been very clear that she is going to have to make some selfish considerations when ultimately deciding.

“I just think that I got to be selfish about where my career is going,” she said in the same interview.

While Mitchell’s next step isn’t clear yet, it does feel quite difficult to walk away from such a flourishing partnership with Caitlin Clark and the Fever. As she herself mentioned, “it’s a lot to hash out,” especially given that she has never been in this decision valley before.