Year 1 of the Caitlin Clark era in Indiana was a raging success. After a very slow start to the season, Clark morphed into one of the best players in the WNBA as a rookie and led the Indiana Fever to the WNBA playoffs as the No. 6 seed, its first playoff berth since 2016.
Clark and company were competitive in their first taste of playoff basketball, but ultimately fell after losing two tight games against the Connecticut Sun. Despite the team's success, the front office decided to part ways with head coach Christie Sides on Sunday.
The coaching job with the Fever will certainly be the most attractive job opening in the league this offseason and is one of the best openings in recent memory. The Fever can offer a great, young core of talented players and a rabid fanbase. Clark is ready-made as a superstar after just one season, where she made All-WNBA First Team.
There are a lot of different directions that the Fever can go in with this coaching search, but here are some top candidates that would keep the franchise on the right track.
Stephanie White
The most obvious choice here is Stephanie White, who is currently the coach of the Connecticut Sun. White has ties to Indiana basketball dating way back: she went to high school in the state, she played college basketball at Purdue where she won national Player of the Year Honors, and she played four seasons with the Fever after being selected by Indiana in its expansion draft.
White has also spent a lot of time on the Fever staff. She was an assistant with the Fever from 2011-14 and was apart of the WNBA Championship-winning team in 2012. White also was the head coach of the Fever in 2015 and 2016, which was the last time that Indiana reached the playoffs before this season.
White has built up her coaching credentials with the Sun in recent years and she has been able to continue the success that the franchise had under Curt Miller, and even won the WNBA's Coach of the Year award in 2023. White is 92-56 in her career as a head coach, including 55-25 over the last two seasons in Connecticut. She also reached the WNBA Finals as a head coach with the Fever in 2015, losing in five games to the Minnesota Lynx.
The Fever possessed an elite offense down the stretch of this season, and it seems that any team with Clark running the show will be able to score at will just about whenever it wants to. Over the last two seasons, White has built a reputation as one of the best defensive coaches in the WNBA, so she could be the perfect coach to fix the Fever's biggest weakness from last season.
Overall, White should be the leading candidate for the job because of her connections to the state and the organization and her seamless fit into what the team needs.
Curt Miller
If the Fever want to go the more experienced route, they could look to former Los Angeles Sparks coach Curt Miller. Miller and the Sparks parted ways shortly after the 2024 season ended. Miller's two-year stint with the Sparks was unsuccessful, but much of it was marred by injuries and a rebuilding roster that wasn't ready to compete just yet.
Miller's tenure with the Sun is more indicative of what he can do with a team and a roster that's ready to compete. He went 140-86 in seven seasons with the Sun, making multiple deep playoff runs and reaching the WNBA Finals in 2022. He also coached the Sun to plenty of great defenses during his time there, so there's a chance that he can instill a similar mindset in Indiana.
Miller also has some ties to the state of Indiana that could draw him back to the state. He coached the Indiana University women's basketball team for two seasons from 2012-14, but failed to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Miller has collected his fair share of WNBA accolades as a coach. He won the league's Coach of the Year award twice, in 2017 and 2021, and was named Executive of the Year in 2017 as well. That experience can help the Fever on the player personnel side as they continue to fill out their core around Clark and Aliyah Boston.
It's unclear whether Miller is interested in getting right back into coaching after leaving Los Angeles, but if the Fever miss out on White and want to bring in an established, veteran coach that has playoff experience to lead a young, talented group, Miller could be the right choice.
Cheryl Miller
If the Fever want to expand outside the ranks of the current WNBA coaching names, they can instead turn to a legend of the game. If Cheryl Miller wants to return to the sidelines, this could be just the spot for her.
Miller was one of the original WNBA coaches when the league began in 1997, and she coached four seasons with the Phoenix Mercury from 1997-2000 while also serving as the team's general manager. She recently coached at the lower levels of college basketball at Langston University from 2014-15 and Cal State Los Angeles from 2016-19.
As a player, Miller's accolades are nearly unmatched even though she played before the WNBA's time. She won the NCAA's Naismith Player of the Year three times and won two National Championships at USC in 1983 and 1984.
Even though she hasn't been coaching full-time, Miller does have some experience working with Clark. She coached Team WNBA in the 2024 All-Star Game when Clark led the team to an upset victory over Team USA.
There hasn't really been any indication that Miller wants to start coaching again other than the fact that she took that position as an All-Star coach, but that is obviously different than coaching a team full-time. However, if she does want to return, the Fever would be an ideal spot for one of basketball's legendary figures.