Caitlin Clark is on pace to break Alyssa Thomas’ single-season assist record despite some inconsistencies among her Indiana Fever teammates. She is already a top-five player in the WNBA as a rookie and only continues to get better with every game.
However, the No. 1 overall pick and the team that drafted her have yet to reach their full potential— which is going to be a problem for the rest of the league for years to come.
Clark is averaging a league-high 8.2 assists per game. Should that pace continue, it would be the highest average every for a rookie. And as of right now, she needs just 70 more assists to break the single-season record, which was set by Thomas at 316 last year. At her current pace, Clark will move into the top spot on Sept. 15 against the Dallas Wings.
It could/should be sooner if her teammates would step up!
Caitlin Clark is dropping dimes.
Everybody talked about Clark as a shooter at Iowa. And for good reason. She was must-see T.V.
However, in doing so, people overlooked the rest of her game — especially as a passer. The runaway Rookie of the Year drops dimes night-in and night-out. She is so smooth.
Clark scaled back some of her deep-range triples during the middle portion of the season to put an emphasis on getting her teammates the ball. It worked! Indiana won 12 of its last 18 games and the Fever are on track to slip into a playoff spot. Their star point guard has not been the top scorer in all of those wins because the people around her have finally stepped up.
With that being said, they are still holding Clark back— to an extent.
Her stats during the early season were soured by her teammates’ inability to catch slick dishes or finish at the rim, which led to visible frustration. A lot (most?) of those issues are cleaned up by now, but not all of them.
Take Monday for example. The Fever allowed the Dream to comeback from 15 points down at one point during the second half. Things got dicey for a moment and they could not score.
I don't know how Caitlin Clark broke the assists record, her teammates can't catch or finish. #caitlinclark #wnba #FeverRising pic.twitter.com/AwySNDDNO0
— Chad (@ChadPursell) August 27, 2024
Indiana went on to beat Atlanta by five so it was not a huge deal. Clark finished with seven boards, seven assists and 19 points. Kelsey Mitchell finished with a game-high 29.
Even though everything went in her favor in the end, Clark was not thrilled with how things went down the stretch. She was on demon time as the clock ticked closer to zero.
i would be pissed off too if i was robbed of so many assists because my teammates can’t finish layups 😭 pic.twitter.com/IRtRIDAO6U
— vi ✰ (@ccloveoml) August 27, 2024
Interestingly enough, Caitlin Clark took way more deep threes on Monday than she has in recent weeks. The greatest scorer in college basketball history pulled up from the logo on multiple occasions.
Caitlin Clark from wayyyy downtown🔥🔥🔥🔥
— Ashwin (@Sudharsan_ak) August 27, 2024
She's not missing that 2 times in a row.#WNBA #FeverRising pic.twitter.com/oQOJJhCJXW
She had a much quicker trigger throughout the game.
Caitlin Clark deep three from the A! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/DdHBCqmtdv
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) August 27, 2024
Perhaps there is a correlation there?
Maybe head coach Christie Sides told Clark to open things up. Maybe Clark took matters into her own hands while her teammates, outside of Mitchell, mostly struggled to get the job done.
The Fever are winning games while still trying to find their full identity. They are going to be a really tough team to beat once everything clicks on a consistent basis.