NaLyssa Smith is not happy with her role on the Indiana Fever now that Caitlin Clark has arrived. She made that clear with a recent “like” on social media that directly criticized head coach Christie Sides.
The third-year forward wants more time on the court and wants to be more involved.
Smith was drafted No. 2 overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft after being named as a First-Team All-American at Baylor. She averaged 13.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 30.7 minutes over 32 games as a rookie. She averaged 15.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 28.5 minutes over 31 games last year.
Although her numbers were pretty strong, Smith was on a team that was bad enough to secure the No. 1 overall pick in back-to-back years after picking her at No. 2 the year prior. It would not be unfair to say that she was one of the brighter spots on a team that did not have many.
This season has been different. Aliyah Boston is in her second year. Clark has arrived.
Smith is averaging 9.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 0.8 assists in just 22 minutes over the first eight games. That line isn’t terrible but doesn’t reflect the reality of the last three outings.
Sides played her only 12 minutes in the Fever’s win over the Sparks on May 24. Smith played just 19 minutes in each of the last two games. She scored three points on three attempts on Tuesday night.
There are two sides to the debate about NaLyssa Smith.
On one end, fans think that a player who (almost) averaged a double-double in 2023 should be starting in 2024. They point to the small sample size as the reason for Smith’s slight decline. There have been moments where she has been awesome!
— @balapattyszn (@balapattyvids) May 9, 2024
On the other end of the discussion, Smith has proven to be a defensive liability on a few different occasions and fans believe that she was only as good as she was in the past because the team around her was so terrible. A struggle with turnovers in the early season certainly didn’t help her case.
Sides seems to believe that Smith is better suited off of the bench and has been using her that way. One of Smith’s most recent “likes” on X indicates that she disagrees with Sides’ decision.
Indiana is 1-7. Even though the Fever’s lone win of the year came when Smith spent the most time on the bench, she is frustrated. Should this trend continue, it will be interesting to see what the second-year head coach chooses to do to keep her players (beyond Caitlin Clark) happy.