Kelsey Mitchell is a free agent again this offseason, and after leading the league in scoring last season, she is openly considering leaving the only team she has ever known. This comes after Mitchell and the Indiana Fever were bounced from the playoffs for the second straight year, losing a winner-take-all first-round game to the Las Vegas Aces. It’s a huge moment for Mitchell, who just wrapped up a historic individual season.
The Numbers Mitchell Put Up Are Insane, But So Was The Playoff Exit
Look, Kelsey Mitchell just had a season that we have literally never seen from a guard. Seriously. She dropped a ridiculous 24.7 points per game, which is the fifth-highest single-season scoring average in WNBA history. She also set a league record with 1,086 total points. On top of all that, she led the entire league in three-point percentage, hitting 45% of her shots from deep. Her 64.5% true shooting was 8.4% above league average and the third-highest ever for a 20-point scorer. That’s just wild.
She did all this while forming an “elite backcourt” with Caitlin Clark. But even with those historic numbers and that dynamic duo, the Fever couldn’t get past the first round. It’s gotta sting for Mitchell, who didn’t even play in the playoffs until 2024, after spending four of her first six seasons in Indiana with teams that won six or fewer games. That wasn’t on her, though, it was a total lack of talent around her. Now, after nine seasons with the team that drafted her No. 2 overall in 2018, everything feels like it’s on the table.
“I Have To Be Selfish”: What Mitchell’s Free Agency Means
So, what’s Mitchell’s vibe on all this? She is being completely upfront: she plans to be “selfish” during her free agency process. Mitchell was quoted saying, “I have to be selfish. I think that’s where I am in my career … what I probably need and what’s probably best for me. So I have to be selfish in that room.” This is huge, especially coming from someone who has only ever known one team. She admitted, “I’ve only been with one team my entire career, so it’s all kind of like figuring this out. It’s hard, man.”
The Fever brass knows what’s up. General Manager Amber Cox has already declared that re-signing Mitchell is a “major priority.” Even Caitlin Clark, her backcourt mate, is publicly campaigning, saying at her exit interview, “there’s nobody I would want to share the backcourt with other than” Mitchell. Clark added that the organization will “recruit her as hard as we can” because “we need her, we love her.” The Fever paid Mitchell the supermax last season and have the cap space to bring her back, but the league is absolutely going to come hard with offers. Mitchell just had the best scoring season of her life at 30 years old, and she’s ready to figure out what’s best for her. What an offseason this is going to be for her and the league.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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