Caitlin Clark said re-signing Kelsey Mitchell is Indiana's top priority in free agency and called the Fever the favorites to win the 2026 WNBA championship.
Caitlin Clark knows what she wants the Indiana Fever to do first this WNBA free agency. Re-sign Kelsey Mitchell.
Clark was on NBC's pregame show Sunday for Thunder-Knicks, and she got straight to it. Mitchell comes first. Mitchell is her backcourt "running mate," she said, someone who takes a lot of the load off.
She also said the Fever are going to win the championship.
"There's nothing like playing for the Fever," Clark said. "I think we're going to be the favorite to win it all. Adds a little pressure, but that's what you love about it."
Last season, Mitchell averaged 20.2 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.8 rebounds in 44 games. She shot 45.6% from the floor, 39.4% from three on 6.4 attempts per game, and posted a plus-151 rating in 1,381 minutes. First Team All-WNBA. Third All-Star appearance.
She will have no shortage of suitors. The new CBA triggered a mass free-agent wave, with more than 100 players hitting the open market after the league and its players' union reached a deal earlier this month following a year-plus standoff. On Indiana's end, only Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Makayla Timpson are signed for 2026.
Retaining Mitchell alongside Clark and Boston will not be cheap. Both Clark and Boston are coming off rookie-scale contracts, and Mitchell is in line for a max after last year. Fitting all three into the new salary structure will be a puzzle for Indiana's front office.
Cox has said this before, pretty much word for word. After the 2025 season ended, Cox said Mitchell was the first call to make. She said the same thing the year before that.
"I'm going to sound like a broken record from last year," Cox said during her exit interview after the 2025 season. The priority will be Kelsey Mitchell and making sure she remains in a Fever jersey."
Mitchell was harder to read last fall. She talked about how much Indianapolis meant to her after eight years there, but stopped short of committing to anything.
"I will say, it's gonna be a lot to talk about because I have so much love and so much aspiration for this place," Mitchell said. "When the time is right, the great conversations will be had, but Indy is like my second family. Everything I've been through the last eight years, I don't think there was any other place that was greater for me."
Clark played in 13 games last season and never suited up in the playoffs. Indiana got to within five minutes of the Finals anyway. She returned healthy and won MVP honors with Team USA at the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico.
Free agency begins in early April. Training camps open April 19.