Caitlin Clark’s Rise Drawing Stars to Fever, Creating Title Contender

While the basketball world was wrapping its mind around the Luka Dončić trade in the NBA, the Indiana Fever made a relatively silent signing that may have just catapulted the Caitlin Clark–led team to title contention status in the WNBA.

The Fever agreed to a one-year deal with six-time All-Star forward DeWanna Bonner on Sunday, according to ESPN. The two-time champion spent her last five seasons with the Connecticut Sun. Indiana now has four players who were All-Stars last season: Clark, Bonner, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell—whom the team re-signed last week on a one-year, supermax deal worth nearly $250,000. 

The 37-year-old Bonner gives the Fever a veteran to stabilize its young core. Assuming Lexie Hull is the final piece of the Fever’s starting five, Bonner would be the only player above the age of 30. 

Bonner’s decision is also a stamp of approval for Clark as a star ready to lead a team to a championship push and for the Fever organization as one able to attract top-level talent to a relatively small market.

The Fever play in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, also the home of the Pacers, which can fit more than 17,000 fans, one of the largest capacities for a home arena in the WNBA. Indiana led the league in attendance last year with an average of 17,035 fans, twice as much as the average crowd at a Sun game last season.

The team announced plans last month for a $78 million performance center slated to open by 2027—though it’s unclear whether Bonner, who is entering her 16th season, will still be in Indiana. She will be 39 by the start of the 2027 season.

Changes Looming

While the Fever are set to compete next season, the team could look completely different the following year, along with the rest of the WNBA. All the major moves announced over the last week—Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks, Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, Satou Sabally to the Phoenix Mercury, and Brittney Griner to the Atlanta Dream—have involved players who will be free agents next season.

Nearly every major WNBA player not locked into a rookie deal is positioned to be a free agent next season in anticipation of a league-wide salary bump. The WNBA is expecting a significant revenue boost given the $2.2 billion media-rights deal it signed that will kick in next season, and players are also expected to negotiate larger salaries after opting out of the collective bargaining agreement late last year. 

It’s unclear just how high player salaries will go. Salaries last season ranged from about $66,000 to $250,000 annually.