Is Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides up to leading the WNBA team that everybody is watching?
What head coach wouldn’t want to oversee a team with two #1-overall draft picks on it–in consecutive years, no less? That’s what Fever coach Christie Sides has with Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, last year’s No. 1 overall pick. But hoped-for results haven’t been a reality … at least not yet.
The Fever is 0-4 after an 88-84 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Monday night. The road to victory won’t get easier when Indiana heads out to the West Coast for a three-game road trip. In four nights, they’ll play the defending champ, the Los Angeles Sparks, the current favorite, the Las Vegas Aces, and start the trip tonight vs. the Seattle Storm.
While Clark and Boston haven’t exactly played like the transcendent players they were expected to be, Sides has taken the brunt of criticism for everything that’s gone wrong for the team. That comes with the territory, especially when coaching future WNBA superstars, largely because instant gratification is an American staple.
I don’t know if Sides is a great coach or not. Like so many others, this is my first season watching the Fever play, and I’m watching mainly because of Clark. But having watched four games so far, it seems like something is amiss with the team.
I sense a disconnect between the head coach and the players. They don’t seem to listen whenever Sides barks instructions to her players. There’s also a problem with players’ cohesion, including lacking an offensive identity. Among other things, there are too many turnovers and misfired shots.
Clark hasn’t been appropriately used as the great shooter she is; Sides wants her to be a facilitator. Then there is Boston, who hasn’t developed in her second year as a pro. She put on an uninspiring 10-point performance on Monday night, including failing to convert a game-tying layup in the final seconds.
Whether fair or not, all of this becomes a coach’s problem. It’s her job to ensure the players are placed in a position to succeed. To do that, Sides needs to build the team by teaching the players how to get the most out of their game–individually and collectively. From what I can see, that’s not happening. Clark has expressed frustration about how she is being used, and Fever players don’t seem to enjoy playing with each other.
At the moment, at least, the Fever doesn’t have the makings of a winning team. Successful clubs play together and execute on both sides of the court. Instead, with the Fever, we see what happens often in basketball: too many players want to get the ball and score rather than knowing and accepting their individual roles in an overall team effort. To me, it looks as though veterans Erica Wheeler and Kelsey Mitchell are doing more to hinder Clark’s and Boston’s growth than assisting them in becoming better players.
The Fever also needs a point guard to set up plays for Clark and Boston. Until that person emerges, Sides may not have a chance to succeed. Yes, the team plays well in stretches (as it did against both the Liberty and Sun, but Indiana still lost both games.
To be clear, no one should have expected the Fever to get off to a great start with the quality of competition they have faced. But underlying issues exist, brought out vividly because of the quality of competition involved.
The bottom line is that Sides and the Fever need to figure out things out quickly. The place to start is building the team (emphasis on team) around Clark and Boston. Sides’ viability as Indiana’s coach is hanging in the balance.
Coach Sides caved to pressure of jealous players.
Thanks for reading and responding, Debra.
I just don’t think Coach Sides is a great coach. She actually had Caitlin on the bench for most of the fourth quarter against Seattle. That decision cost the Fever the win, because had she played that quarter, she and the team would be in a good offensive rhythm that would have them won the game.