The Indiana Fever came through the expansion draft nearly unscathed, losing only depth pieces Chloe Bibby and Kristy Wallace while keeping their core intact. That left Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell in place as the franchise turns toward free agency on April 12.
The Fever did not lose a key piece, and that matters because the team already has the kind of foundation most clubs spend years trying to build. Clark is under contract, Boston is under contract, and Mitchell has given no indication she wants to play anywhere else.
That is the biggest reason Indiana can approach the next stage differently from teams scrambling to replace a star. Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and A'ja Wilson have already said they will re-sign with their current franchises, narrowing the market at the top and shifting attention to the players who can fill out a roster. Indiana’s task is less about chasing a headline name and more about finding the right role players around the group it already trusts.
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One player who fits that mold is Kennedy Burke, who was the Liberty’s sixth player last season. She averaged 8.1 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting around 41% on 3.1 three-point attempts per game, then helped New York win the title in 2024. Those numbers help explain why players with her profile matter so much when free agency opens.
The same goes for Stevens, who got through the expansion draft without hearing her name called and played the best basketball of his career in 2025. The 30-year-old averaged 12.8 points, 8 rebounds and 2.1 assists, a line that underlines how valuable proven production can be once the market starts moving.
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Indiana entered the draft described as having come through pretty unscathed, and that is exactly how it looks now: two departures on the margins, no damage to the center of the roster. The next challenge is simpler to state and harder to solve. The Fever do not need to find a savior. They need to add the right pieces fast enough to keep a contender together.
