As longest-tenured Fever player, Kelsey Mitchell has to lead

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kelsey Mitchell would be thrilled if she were allowed to operate as a strong silent type, if she could show up at work, speak through her game and have her professionalism built through five WNBA seasons naturally permeate the Indiana Fever roster.

"I'm not a woman of many words," Mitchell said.

But being quiet isn't possible this season for the sixth-year guard. Not on a team with a training camp roster on which 13 of the 17 players are either rookies or in their second season in the WNBA. Mitchell has to speak up not only to keep teammates from getting lost on help-side defense, but from getting lost in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Mitchell has come to understand that and to embrace it. She's just 27, but she's the longest tenured member of the Fever and by far the most decorated player, coming off a season in which she averaged a career-high 18.4 points per game to finish sixth in the WNBA. Even after the Fever selected South Carolina All-American Aliyah Boston No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft and Indiana star Grace Berger later in the first round, first-year coach Christie Sides still refers to Mitchell as the "face of the franchise." She knows that requires her to be the leading voice in the locker room as well.

"It's a graceful feeling to be honest," Mitchell said after practice Tuesday. "To know where I started from and know where I'm at now, all the growth and all the experience, but also being able to take all my experiences and not put that all on first- and second-year players but make an impact and give them what I think a lot of pros go through and just be that support system. There's so much that happens throughout the course of one day for a pro athlete, especially at the beginning of their career that a lot of people don't understand. It's just as small as finding the weight room or knowing where the massage room is. Or knowing how to talk to (athletic trainer Todd Champlin). At this level, all that kind of plays a role and there's nothing like having an older person with more experience on your side to help you with that."

As a young player, Mitchell had plenty of role models for the position of elder stateswoman, which she finds herself in much sooner than she would have imagined. She remembers how wing Tiffany Mitchell (no relation) and center Natalie Achonwa, now both with the Minnesota Lynx, and forward Shenise Johnson, now an assistant coach at her alma mater, the University of Miami, showed her the ropes on the floor and off of it. They not only helped her with how to navigate the playbook but how to navigate the Fever's facilities, Indianapolis as a city, the WNBA as a league and professional women's basketball in general.

So many of the players who became her teammates when she was drafted No. 2 out of Ohio State in 2018 have since moved. So did many of the players who were added to the team in the three years after she was drafted. But she remembers advice they gave her when she notices that her new young teammates aren't sure where they are supposed to be.

"We had some people who just forgot where to go and what time to be there," Mitchell said. "We've created a constant check-in about, 'Hey, you've got to be here at this time. If you need me to take you there, let me know.' We had a player or two yesterday who needed to get a massage and didn't know where to go. Those small things just make life easier and when you can lean on your teammates for certain things that are that small, it makes your day. Because it's like, 'Dang, not only do I got a massage, I can't be late and I don't know where it is.' It's a great feeling that you can be rely on and people look at you as a reliable consistent person to be able to talk to."

The difference in Mitchell is evident to people who knew her when she arrived in the league. Point guard Erica Wheeler played two seasons with Mitchell with the Fever before missing all of the 2020 season with COVID and complications stemming from the virus and then signing with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021. After one season with the Sparks, she was traded to the Atlanta Dream last season, then returned to the Fever, signing a free agent contract in February. She found her former backcourt mate to be a much more mature leader.

"She's talking more,' Wheeler said. "Kelsey is more so soft-spoken. We all know she's a great player. To see here lead more and just talking more has been great."

Fever first-year head coach Christie Sides also sees a different version of Mitchell than the one she remembers when she was an assistant under former coach Pokey Chatman in Mitchell's first two seasons.

"It's great to watch her in this environment now," Sides said. "I had her for two years. She's going into Year 6. Her maturity level, we're spending a lot of time talking. I really want her more involved as a leader on this team. It's so important that she is the face. She's the face of the franchise. She's done a really great job of buying in."

While she's poured herself into her leadership role, she's also taken more steps in adding to her game on the floor. She said she spent much of her offseason focused on improving her agility with her trainer, Craig Thompson, based near her hometown of Cincinnati. As long as she's been in the league, she's had the ability to score at all three levels, but she's getting better at getting to her spots.

"The speed that she has," Sides said. "Kelsey Mitchell can turn on the jets so fast and go by people. Before you know it, she's gone. But she's also learned how to change speeds. She's also learned how to get by somebody, there's the help, and then go again. Just watching that growth. She used to be full steam ahead. Now she's like reading the defense now, which is huge for her."

The Fever now have to figure out how to make the most of her skill set. Bringing Wheeler back gives Mitchell the opportunity to move back off the ball as a shooting guard, a position she frequently played early in her career. She shot a career-best 40.9% from 3-point range last season, so Shades said they'd like to set her up for catch-and-shoot opportunities.

"I like Kelsey off the ball a lot," Shades said. "We're gonna be able to run a lot of actions for her, get her some wide-open looks. Our goal is to get wide-open shots, so if we play with good space and we're able to create and use the playmakers and the shooters that we have, and then with our bigs, get that space, Kelsey's going to be able to take some wide-open shots and we know what she can do when she gets hot."

But Mitchell is still very comfortable running the point, which is her natural position. She spent more time on the ball last season and finished with career highs in both scoring and assists with 4.2 per game and still led the Fever with 76 3-pointers. She's already developed chemistry with Boston as a pick-and-roll partner. She has a better understanding now of how to play off Wheeler when Wheeler is running the point, but also has more comfort at the 1 than anywhere else.

"I'm expecting to be in a position to make plays," Mitchell said. "Off-the-ball is one thing, but I think I have a good handle on making plays with the ball as well. I think coach Christie seeks that and she knows that if she ever needs me to take on those situations, I'm capable of doing that. I also think for me, off-the-ball is just about finding my spots. My whole life I've been a PG. Four or five years in I'm just now learning how to play off-the-ball. It's taking some time but I think the biggest thing right now is just finding my spots."

While also finding her spots to lead.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Kelsey Mitchell stepping up leadership