Fever Urged to Add Perimeter Defense as Kelsey Mitchell Enters Free Agency

Kelsey Mitchell scored 1,086 points for Indiana in 2026, a WNBA single-season record. She is now an unrestricted free agent, and the Fever have no core tag to put on her.

Keeping her tops the Fever’s list in Sabreena Merchant’s Nov. 10 analysis of each team’s offseason priority for The Athletic. Her second item for Indiana is a perimeter defender other than Lexie Hull, and she offers a few names as fits, not as players the Fever have been reported to pursue.

Indiana “wasn’t good enough to win a title last season even with its historic offensive output,” Merchant wrote.

The Fever went 28-16. Las Vegas eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs.

Mitchell averaged 24.7 points on a one-year deal. Indiana drafted her second overall in 2018, and she has played all nine of her seasons there. The collective bargaining agreement the league and its players’ union reached in March ends core eligibility at seven years of service.

That leaves her free to talk with every team once negotiations open Feb. 4.

“I have to be selfish,” Mitchell said at her exit interview. “I think that’s where I am in my career … what I probably need and what’s probably best for me. So I have to be selfish in that room.”

“But I think, ultimately, being on the Fever and being a part of an organization that does come with a lot of ups and downs, what factors in and what is important for me is, obviously, having a good chemistry on and off the floor,” Mitchell continued. “I’ve only been with one team my entire career, so it’s all kind of like figuring this out. It’s hard, man.”

Two of Merchant’s options, Stephanie Talbot and Aicha Coulibaly, are unrestricted. Talbot played 2026 in Las Vegas. Coulibaly was in Chicago, according to Her Hoop Stats’ free agent list.

The other two would cost more effort. Rebekah Gardner is a restricted free agent with New York, and Rae Burrell is restricted with Los Angeles, which means both teams can match an offer sheet.

Burrell’s defense “has been more theoretical in Los Angeles,” Merchant wrote, particularly once her offensive role grew in 2026. She also wrote that Burrell has the physical tools for that end of the floor.

Hull does not appear on the Her Hoop Stats list. Mitchell is one of five unrestricted Fever free agents who do, along with Sophie Cunningham, Tyasha Harris, Myisha Hines-Allen, and Mercedes Russell.

Whoever runs the Fever’s free agency will be new to the job.

Kelly Krauskopf, the franchise’s first president and general manager in 2000, stepped down as president Oct. 23. Hours later, the team announced the departure of general manager Amber Cox, who had come to Indiana in 2024 after two years as the Dallas Wings’ chief operating officer. The Fever said they would conduct a national search.

Sheri Sam, a former Portland Trail Blazers scouting manager, has since been hired as assistant general manager, IndyStar’s Chloe Peterson reported.

Stephanie White is 52-36 in two seasons as coach. She took Connecticut to back-to-back semifinals before coming back to Indiana, where she coached the Fever to the 2015 Finals. The team has not announced a change on the bench.