“We also want to be smart. She doesn’t need every rep in practice. We want to continue to ramp her up,” was the exact statement of Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White for her franchise player, Caitlin Clark. Coming off an injury-laden 2025 season, CC’s comeback is causing a lot of stir and anticipation in the W, and White’s assessment just clarifies her approach towards utilizing Clark. But a veteran analyst isn’t buying into White’s whole scheme.

Speaking on her YouTube sports show, Rachel A. DeMita respectfully disagreed with White’s stance on treating CC like a fragile player, arguing it isn’t feasible or substantively helpful for Clark’s long-term development.

“I will say this quote worried me a little bit because it’s almost like Steph White is talking about Caitlin Clark, she’s injury-prone,” DeMita said of White’s assessment. And Clark has never been injury-prone until last year, and I wouldn’t even call that injury-prone. I would say that she was dealing with soft tissue injuries that came at a very unfortunate time.” The second perspective that Rachel DeMita shed light on was the equation between intense training and fitness.

“The thing that worries me when you say she doesn’t need to get every rep in practice, or we’ll slowly ramp her up in training camp. Sometimes injuries come if you’re not training hard enough and you’re not ready for that load,” she added. “I don’t want to see them treating her as this delicate point guard who needs to be covered in bubble wrap, because I don’t think that’s going to help her in the long run.”

DeMita seems quite spot on in her assessment. If you look at her career timeline during her Iowa days, Clark has never missed a single game for the Hawkeyes, despite playing in a highly competitive Big Ten conference. Even in her rookie season, Clark played all the Fever’s games, despite the physical and speed challenges she faced.

Now, that gives a sharp perspective on CC’s adaptability and strong physicality, which have assisted her all these years. It’s true that she missed 31 games last year due to a right groin injury and several other minor bruises. But, as DeMita says in her assessment, it won’t be fair to hold up this solitary season against Clark, especially when CC herself admitted that last season was the first time she didn’t feel comfortable with her body.

“This is the first time I haven’t felt like a young body that can run around and sprint every day and just continue to do that,” Clark said back in July last year. But that’s been a long time now. Since then, she has started her training practice session quite early, and the most important silver lining came in Puerto Rico during the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

Caitlin Clark looked immensely fit and agile in the tournament while competing with top USA stars like Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese. Additionally, her performance on the court never looked rusty, despite being away for a prolonged time due to her injury.

It quietly echoes the sentiment that Clark might not need the extra care and protection White might be talking about, given that she is already rising and in full swing to compete in her third season at the W.

Indiana Fever Roster Looks Daunting if Caitlin Clark Stays Fit

The Fever entered the offseason at the back of an inspiring semifinals run last season, despite missing their franchise star for the majority of the season. With CC in a good physical frame this season, the team’s ceiling goes up immediately, and they were looking to build on that success. On top of that, the Fever front office has pulled off a heck of a job in this offseason.

Firstly, the Fever were immensely successful in bringing back vital players like Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull, and Sophie Cunningham. And they followed it up by signing Raven Johnson, their first-round WNBA draft pick, to complement the backcourt and add more depth. All in all, with so many returners, the team looks quite stacked, but it’s very important that Clark stays fit throughout the season, as she did in her rookie year.

It’s needless to say that Caitlin Clark will be the most vital crux of the team. It’s true that the team has superstars in Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, as well as top bench players like Cunningham and Hull. But we all know that only very few can boast what Clark can pull off in the backcourt.

Even Indiana Fever President Kelly Krauskopf hinted in a recent conversation that the main agenda of her team’s front office in the free agency was to bring in players who could build around Clark and Boston.

“We wanted to return Kelsey Mitchell and Lexi,” she said. “So we wanted to keep some of the players that were with, us and understand what we’re about and how we go about it and obviously that complements Caitlin and Aliyah.”

All in all, the Indiana Fever might not be the New York Liberty or the Las Vegas Aces that have rosters stacked with veterans, but it’s a team of immensely talented future stars like Clark, who will be quite an interesting team to see in the upcoming season.