Caitlin Clark, the coach of the National Women’s team, has requested two players for $75 million this week due to

Caitlin Clark, the coach of the National Women’s team, has requested two players for $75 million this week due to,

On Thursday, she shattered the previous record for the quickest WNBA player to reach 300 career points, 100 rebounds, and 100 steals by doing so in her 19th game. According to ESPN Stats & Information, no player had ever done so in less than 22 games, and the previous record was held by Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty, who did it in 27 games.

Despite the No. 1 overall pick’s record-breaking flexibility, Clark and the Indiana Fever have had a rough start, owing to a grueling schedule to begin her professional career. Indiana played only two of its first 11 games this season against teams with.500 or worse records, which was two more than any other WNBA team at the time. It’s no wonder the Fever started 2-9, with Clark scoring a season-low three points in the final game of the run.

Despite the No. 1 overall pick’s record-breaking flexibility, Clark and the Indiana Fever have had a rough start, owing to a grueling schedule to begin her professional career. Indiana played only two of its first 11 games this season against teams with.500 or worse records, which was two more than any other WNBA team at the time. It’s no wonder the Fever started 2-9, with Clark scoring a season-low three points in the final game of the run.

Indiana’s schedule has evened out, both in terms of opponent quality and practice time, allowing the club to develop around Clark’s unique skill set, and the Fever have won four straight games for the first time since 2015. Eight of the WNBA’s 12 teams advance to the postseason, with Indiana (8-12) making the playoffs if the 40-game regular season ends today. Clark’s performance has also improved, as expected: she’s averaging 16.8 points, 7.6 assists, and 6.3 rebounds in her last nine games. As she begins the second half of her rookie season Tuesday against the Las Vegas Aces (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), let’s take a deeper look at what the statistics show about how Clark and Indiana are figuring things out and where She might be able to continue improving for the rest of the season and beyond.

Clark’s ability to generate effective offense through repeated pick-and-rolls is more vital to her growth as a WNBA player than anything else. That is already the case midway into her rookie season. According to a Second Spectrum examination of camera-tracking data, Indiana has averaged 0.97 points per direct pick-and-roll when either Clark or the screen setter shoots, goes to the free throw line, or turnovers the ball, or when a Clark pass leads up an immediate shot by another teammate.

This ranks second among players who have gotten at least 200 ball screens, trailing only Jackie Young of Las Vegas.

Early on, opponents responded by trapping Clark with two defenders more frequently than any other player in the NBA. According to Second Spectrum, defenders have blitzed 89 ball screens, twice as much as the next highest player, Ionescu, who had 46. Clark’s passing ability has consistently resulted in solid shoots in these scenarios. The Fever have averaged 1.05 points per direct pick-and-roll against blitzes, which is higher than their overall average.

Spectral analysis. Over the last nine games, that figure has plummeted by more than half, to 10%. With increased practice, the Fever have improved their trapping strategies, utilizing double teams on Clark to create open shoots for teammates. More importantly for Indiana’s long-term prospects, she and 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston have begun to improve their synergy as pick-and-roll players. Clark has always played pick-and-roll basketball, but Boston was mostly a post scorer in college at South Carolina. When she was chosen, Synergy Sports tracking revealed Boston had attempted only nine shots during whole senior season after screening in pick-and-roll.

As a WNBA rookie, Boston tried nearly three times as many post-up shots as pick-and-rolls, according to Synergy data. She has raised her screener attempts by more than 40% every game this season, gradually creating synergy with Clark. Clark assisted Boston 1.3 times per game over the first 13 games of the season. Since then, the figure has more than tripled to 4.0 per game.