Caitlin Clark identifies Fever's 'first priority' in free agency as WNBA offseason finally gets underway

The Fever have just three players locked in for the 2026 roster

Caitlin Clark's busy offseason continued Sunday with another sidequest when she joined the NBC pregame show ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder's win over the New York Knicks. In addition to proclaiming that Nikola Jokić is the best player in the world, Clark said that the Indiana Fever's "first priority" should be to re-sign Kelsey Mitchell in free agency and that the team is "going to be the favorite to win it all" in the WNBA this season. 

Here are Clark's full comments on the Fever ahead of WNBA free agency, which will get started in early April:

"I mean we were trying to win it all last year, that's certainly what we're trying to do this year. It's a very unique situation. I think there's over a hundred players in the league that are free agents, so we really only know about five people, or three people, that are going to be on our team next year. But I feel like we have a great core. You know our first priority is to sign Kelsey Mitchell back. Was First Team All-WNBA last year, kind of my running mate in the back court. She makes it real easy for me. 

"So there's nothing like playing for the Fever, 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. We got a great squad, a great coach, great support staff, so it's super exciting."

The 2026 WNBA season will go ahead as scheduled after the league and the players union came to terms on a historic new collective bargaining agreement earlier this month, ending a bitter labor fight that had lasted for more than a year. 

But while the two sides got a deal done in time to salvage the entire season, the offseason was completely disrupted. Over the next few weeks, the league will have to rush through an entire winter's worth of activity -- a double expansion draft for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, the two new expansion teams joining the league this season, free agency and the 2026 WNBA Draft -- before training camps begin on April 19. 

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And as Clark noted, the condensed timeline isn't the only reason this is a unique offseason. Every single player not on a rookie scale contract besides Kalani Brown and Lexie Brown maneuvered to become a free agent this offseason in anticipation of a major pay raise in the new CBA. More than 100 players are free agents, and some teams only have one player under contract for 2026. 

The Fever have three players signed up: Clark, Aliyah Boston and Makayla Timpson. Once the Fever get through the expansion draft, the organization will have some big decisions to make in free agency, especially with new salary scales that will make it difficult to have three max players. Clark and Boston are both currently on rookie-scale deals, but they will soon be receiving max contracts and Mitchell will assuredly be looking for the same after her All-WNBA First Team showing last season. 

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But whatever cap issue might exist down the line, it's clear the team hopes to retain Mitchell.

"I'm going to sound like a broken record from last year," Fever general manager Amber 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, for her part, was non-committal last fall, but did praise the organization and the city of Indianapolis. 

"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 in October. "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."

The Fever were five minutes away from the Finals last season even though Clark was limited to 13 games and did not suit up in the playoffs. She's now fully healthy and coming off an MVP showing with Team USA at the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico. 

If the Fever are able to re-sign Mitchell and reunite their big three of her, Clark and Boston, they will absolutely be one of the favorites to win it all in 2026.