Sophie Cunningham called attention to something many Indiana Fever fans have felt about the team’s offense during a recent episode of her “No Hesitation” podcast.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m harping on the negative. But when you lose, you think about everything that you could have done, right? The inconsistency. And one of them was, on offense, when stuff was working, it’s like we got bored of doing it, so we tried other stuff. And I’m like, why? Why?” Cunningham said.
“If they cannot guard—let’s just say a ’77’, [which is] a guard screen, post, and a drag—if that works and they can’t guard it, why would we ever get away from it? Why are we calling all these other plays?”
Cunningham’s co-host, Drew Hanlen, responded by saying, “Spam it!”
“But we don’t!” Cunningham answered. “I don’t know if that’s on our point guards; I don’t know if that’s on our staff… But this has happened pretty much every single game: That when stuff goes well, and we’re scoring, and we’re hitting all the options, we just randomly stop doing it. And that’s when we tend to lose leads. It’s mind-blowing, I don’t understand it.”
Cunningham is calling attention to something that many Fever fans have noticed and expressed frustration about: that Stephanie White seems to overthink their offense and go away from what is working.
The one questionable part of Cunningham’s comments is that she knows exactly who this tendency is “on”: White and the rest of the Fever’s coaches. They’re the ones dictating the offensive strategy and who comes up with game plans.
And even if it was the team’s guards who went away from these plans, it’s White’s job to get the team back on track.
This isn’t the first time Cunningham has questioned an element of White’s coaching. Last month, she complained about the intensity and duration of Fever practices, which drew a lot of attention.
Cunningham deserves credit for being willing to speak her mind on these issues (something she’s never afraid to do, regardless of what the issue is). And her articulating what so many Fever fans and analysts have felt this year adds more frustration to how the team’s season finished.
It remains to be seen whether White will be back as the Fever’s head coach next season. It also remains to be seen whether Cunningham will be back, as she’ll be an unrestricted free agent.
Either way, this offensive “inconsistency” needs to be ironed out in 2027.
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