Caitlin Clark started her WNBA career just a couple weeks ago, and while she has been scoring well, the Indiana Fever are off to a rough start. After losing a close one to the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night, the Fever are 0-5. However, Clark herself has been playing well as she is averaging over 17 PPG and she is shooting a little over 40% from the field. Still, she doesn't care about that stuff as much as she cares about winning.
Losing is something that Caitlin Clark is not used to, so this shaky start for the Fever is something that she really hasn't experienced. Clark was a winner at Iowa as she made it to the national title game the past two seasons, so starting 0-5 in the WNBA is something new for Clark.
Adjusting to the WNBA is difficult to do. Clark was the best player in college basketball, but the talent level in the pros is different. Clark has done a good job so far, but she knows that she has a lot of room to grow. Her biggest critic is herself.
“I'm probably the hardest critic of myself, so I expect a lot of myself, coaches expect a lot of me and I want to be great for my teammates more than anything,” Clark said on Wednesday, according to a tweet from Roey Hadar.
Right now, Clark and the Fever know that they have a lot of things to improve on, and they just want to start by finding a way to get their first win. They will have another chance to pick up victory number one on Friday when they play the Los Angeles Sparks.
ESPN writers rate Caitlin Clark's WNBA performance
After what Caitlin Clark was able to accomplish in college, everybody has been curious to see how she performs in the WNBA. All eyes of the basketball world are constantly on her, and everybody is grading her performances from each game. ESPN writers Michael Voepel, Kevin Pelton and Alexa Philippou all rated Clark's performance through four games, and this is what they had to say:
“She has done what could be reasonably expected,” Michael Voepel said. “The Fever's tough schedule to start the season meant Clark would immediately be facing not just playoff-level opponents but the top tier of those teams. During some moments, she looked a little uncomfortable. In others, she seems to be gaining confidence. The magnifying glass on her is enormous, but the actual performances examined through the prism of reality have been the overall positive mixed bag almost any top rookie has early on in a pro sports career.”
“Improving. I was more optimistic than most WNBA analysts about Clark's rookie potential based on what we've seen from generational No. 1 picks in the past,” Kevin Pelton said. “Still, the time it took the most recent high-scoring guards drafted with the top pick (Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum) to develop into WNBA stars tempered those expectations. Clark's first four games have looked a lot like Ionescu's abbreviated three-game rookie season, which featured a 33-point game but also more turnovers than assists. Clark's scoring has come around the past two outings. Now, she must cut down on her turnovers.”
“A lot of the reaction toward her early games said more about the expectations themselves (and whether they were realistic in the first place) than about Clark and her potential,” Alexa Philippou said. “It isn't a given for top picks (particularly guards) to come into the league and dominate in year one, let alone four games in. We've seen her impact the game in many ways, as she did at Iowa, even if her efficiency could stand improvement and her turnovers need cleaning up. Now, we get to see how she builds on it for the next 36 regular-season games.”
It's going to be exciting to see the way that Caitlin Clark grows throughout this first season.
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