The Indiana Fever’s championship aspirations don’t hinge on their talent, but on the health of their superstar. After Caitlin Clark’s 2025 season was cut short just after 13 games due to a groin injury, the biggest question in Indiana is how the team plans to keep her on the court.

So the good news is head coach Stephanie White isn’t leaving anything to chance as she has made it clear that the Fever are taking a calculated approach with their star guard.

“Yeah, I think it’s new for everybody. I think we’ve got to be smart,” coach White said in a recent conversation on Query & Company. “She has worked her butt off this whole offseason to prepare herself. We have an added advantage in that she played games in March, right, with USA Basketball. And so she has game exposure, she has game pace, she has game rhythm, she has game timing, and so we have an advantage.”

After taking her sweet time to fully focus on her recovery, Caitlin Clark returned to the court with Team USA during the 2026 FIBA World Cup qualifiers, where she led the group to five wins while averaging 14.6 points and 6.4 assists. That stretch gave her a sort of warm-up to the game that’s usually hard to replicate in practice.

Still, despite that boost, the Indiana Fever wants to make sure Clark is built up carefully rather than rushed back into a full workload.

“But we also want to be smart. She doesn’t need every rep in practice. We want to continue to ramp her up. It’s a long season, 44 games, and we play a heavy cadence of games in a week. And so we want to be smart in camp, and make sure we – I don’t want to say ease her into it, because she’s ready for camp – but we want to make sure that we manage the reps, and what kinds of reps she’s getting, just to build her up so that she’s ready to go, and we don’t have any kind of questions about that,” the coach further added.

So it’s clear that Stephanie White has a plan that reflects confidence in her player, but with caution. Because while Clark has already shown she’s close to game-ready with her recent stint, the Indiana Fever are aiming for a full season.

But her return isn’t the only storyline right now.

Is there a beef between Raven Johnson and Caitlin Clark?

When the Indiana Fever used their No. 10 pick to draft Raven Johnson just a few days ago, it didn’t take long for fans to point out who she’ll now be sharing the court with.

For a lot of people, Johnson isn’t just a decorated guard out of South Carolina. She’s the same player who once stood across from Caitlin Clark in one of the most talked-about moments in college basketball history.

Back in the 2023 Final Four, Clark famously waved Johnson off on the perimeter, daring her to shoot the ball. The clip of that incident went viral almost instantly.

Caitlin Clark, Raven Johnson
Via Imagn

However, Johnson revealed that moment brought a wave of online criticism and abuse, which nearly pushed her away from the sport altogether. And that’s the source of the claim that these two players can’t see eye to eye.

But that’s exactly what makes this team-up in Indiana so fascinating. Because, instead of being defined by their past, both of them are stepping into a shared space with a common goal – winning the championship.

Johnson is widely known for performing the little things right. She brings a skill set that will complement Caitlin Clark because where Clark thrives as an offensive engine, Johnson operates as a stabilizer.

And that distinction is exactly why the Fever got her. Because while some fans questioned the need for another guard, the coaching staff clearly sees something different.

So the narrative of these two guards having something against each other is just louder online and doesn’t represent the ground reality.

Take it from Aliyah Boston, because even she claimed, “fans always have more beef than the players actually do.”

So that answers any questions you may have about Raven Johnson and Caitlin Clark having a problem with each other.

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