What awaits Caitlin Clark in the WNBA?

Barring something totally unexpected, Caitlin Clark will be picked first overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft Monday night.

State Farm, the draft’s sponsor and one of Clark’s sponsors (check out her recent commercial with Reggie Miller and Jimmy Butler — not that she needs to be surrounded by male talent), certainly expects that to happen. The company sent the actor who plays “Jake from State Farm” to be one of the first to congratulate Clark after she’s picked first.

ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said the league has never seen a player garner as much attention as Clark. She believes that Clark in Indiana is the “perfect fit.”

“(It) just seems kind of perfect,” she said in a pre-draft press conference. “The hero of the Heartland is going to be staying there and leading this team. But in terms of attention, we’ve never ever, ever seen anything like this. We’ve had great great players come into the league people were excited (about, but) ... never anything close to this.”

The Caitlin Clark effect in the WNBA

The WNBA is already capitalizing on Clark’s popularity even though she isn’t yet officially part of the league.

The defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces, who have already sold out their season tickets, moved their July game against the Fever from the 12,000-capacity Michelob ULTRA Arena to the 18,000 T-Mobile Arena, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Seat Geek is seeing an increase in ticket prices for the Fever’s road games in Connecticut (91% increase) and against super team New York Liberty (50% increase), and the average resale ticket prices for Fever games has increased 136%, according to ESPN.

The Caitlin Clark effect extends to television, too.

In 2023, only one Fever game was televised nationally. In the upcoming season, all but four of the Fever’s 40 games will be nationally televised, according to IndyStar.

“There’s no comparison that I can find on the women’s side, and I’ve been in this league since the very beginning,” Lobo said. “We haven’t seen a player drive ticket sales like this. We haven’t seen a player drive ratings like this. I mean, look at the ratings (of) the last four or five games she played. I mean, it’s something that she’d been doing all season long.”

What to expect from Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in 2024

Despite the Fever finishing last in the Eastern Conference, Clark will be joining a talented team that is poised to make a playoff run this season, Cindy Brunson, the play-by-play voice for the Phoenix Mercury, told the Deseret News.

The Fever held the No. 1 pick last year, too, and selected South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, who went on to be the unanimous WNBA rookie of the year and the first rookie to lead the league in field goal percentage (57.8%), according to IndyStar. Boston has her own long list of college accolades, including a national championship and national player of the year awards.

“I think what’s really crazy is not just Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, right? It’s Kelsey Mitchell, so with Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark, you have the last two Big 10 record holders for 3-pointers made in a single season in the same back court. You add Lexie Hull, an elite defender who can score the basketball, and NaLyssa Smith,” Brunson said. “If Indiana doesn’t make the playoffs and make a deep run, heads are gonna roll — I don’t know from the coaching standpoint, maybe even the GM — because the talent is obviously there. All they have to do is avoid the injury bug, and that team is going to be special.”

But Brunson doesn’t see Indiana in the same tier as the New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Dallas Wings or Phoenix Mercury.

“I don’t put them in superteam category,” Brunson said. “But they are close.”

Lobo is also excited to see Clark help her Fever teammates maximize their talent like she did at Iowa.

“I’m really excited to see Caitlin surrounded by the players that are already on the Indiana team, because, you know, her vision is next level and I’m eager to see players around her who can consistently see what she sees and finish what she delivers to them,” she said.

How Caitlin Clark’s game will translate to the WNBA

Like all rookies, Clark will likely be humbled a bit at first.

Three-time WNBA champion, two-time WNBA Finals MVP and three-time NCAA champion Diana Taurasi said “reality is coming” for Clark. Taurasi was the No. 1 overall pick 20 years ago and plays for the Mercury.

Taurasi made the comment on SportsCenter following Iowa’s Final Four win over UConn when asked by host Scott VanPelt about what is awaiting this year’s class of rookies.

“Reality is coming,” she said. “There’s levels to this thing, and that’s just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come with some grown women who’ve been playing professional basketball for a long time.”

Taurasi continued, “Not saying that’s not gonna translate cause when you’re great at what you do, you’re just gonna get better. But there is going to be a transition period, where you’re going to have to give yourself some grace as a rookie.”

ESPN analyst Andraya Carter agrees that the physicality of playing against grown women will be a challenge for Clark and all rookies.

“The hits are going to be a little bit harder, the checks are going to be harder, the defense is going to be more physical and the players will be faster,” she said in the pre-draft press conference.

But Carter also sees Clark’s game translating to the league immediately.

“I think Caitlin’s game translates immediately, just in terms of her range, her ability to hit shots and her vision,” she said. “People talk about Caitlin’s scoring, but her passing is next level. Like when we say next level, she’s been a pro passer as well in her game. So when you think about her playing alongside Aliyah Boston, NaLyssa (Smith), when you think about her playing with Kelsey Mitchell, like her ability to find her teammates and set them up for success, I think will immediately translate because people will probably defend her like she’s a scorer.”