When you take a step back and look at things objectively, it was stunning what the Indiana Fever were able to accomplish during the 2025 WNBA season. In Stephanie White‘s first season as the team’s head coach, they made the semifinals of the WNBA Playoffs before running into the eventual champions, the Las Vegas Aces.
And they got that far without Caitlin Clark, who was in and out of the lineup through the first three months of the season before ultimately being shut down. Losing your best player, and one of Clark’s caliber, would sink just about any team. But the Fever kept chugging along with White leading the way. The head coach got help from some standout seasons from other players; particularly Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston. Mitchell is the one who picked up a lot of the scoring slack left in Clark’s wake, and in the process became White’s favorite player.
Stephanie White loves “low-maintenance” Kelsey Mitchell
White basically admitted as much in a recent appearance on Sue Bird‘s podcast, gushing about Mitchell and practically forcing the Fever front office to re-sign her this offseason.
With Kelsey, Kelsey’s just a pro’s pro. She’s so low-maintenance. She just comes, she just wants to play. You think about when Tamika (Catchings) left and retired. This franchise went through a lot. And Kelsey’s been the constant, and she deserves the opportunity to be a part of the successful years of the Indiana Fever. I was really happy for her about that.
Mitchell has been with the Fever for her entire WNBA career. She was drafted second overall out of Ohio State in 2018, and has been a consistent scoring option for the team in every season. In 2025, she averaged a career-high 20.2 points as the team’s leading scorer.
Mitchell is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, but it sounds like White is begging for her to come back. The player likely wants to be back as well, considering she’s been there since the beginning. The front office will probably appease both of them.
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