Rapid fire notes from Indiana Fever 2026 training camp week one

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Fever are about one week into 2026 training camp and are nearing their preseason debut. Time flies.

It all happens fast. Head coach Stephanie White has a balance to achieve – teach plays, concepts, and terminology while also not overloading her players with information. Throw too much at the roster and none of it will be retained. Ease in with too little and the team won't have enough strategies to go to early in the season.

"We're going real slow in terms of what we're implementing," White said. "We want to have two things that we're going to do really well this week before we add anything... we're going to go slow, we want to get really good at the things that we have and the things that are baseline before we start overloading them. There's oftentime paralysis by analysis when you do that."

In the spirit of matching training camp, both with information and speed, here are some rapid-fire notes and observations from week one inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Circle City Spin

The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

Circle City SpinTony East

Welcome, Mo Billings

The Fever's highest paid external acquisition in free agency was Monique Billings, a frontcourt player with vast experiences within different styles and team quality.

In the offseason, she was teammates with Fever star Kelsey Mitchell in Unrivaled, then with Caitlin Clark for Team USA. She began to build some chemistry in those moments, and now those three are teammates.

The most common word Billings' teammates use to describe her is athletic, and White is hopeful her defensive abilities plus that athleticism can lift the Fever's rebounding level as a team.

So far, Billings seems to be a good off-court fit. She's endlessly positive and has a calming presence to her despite being a competitor.

As for her role, Billings doesn't know exactly how everything will look. But there's a clear spot for her to start at the four while also, when applicable, being the backup five. Training camp will determine those specifics.

"However the coaches see fit, I just know I'm going to come in, do whatever is asked of me every single time, and this is a great group," Billings said of her role.

Kelsey Mitchell, richer and healthier

Mitchell signed a one-year, $1.4 million supermax deal in free agency. Right now, the only supermax signees for 2026 are Mitchell, A'ja Wilson, and Napheesa Collier.

That's a small group of All-WNBA level talents. Mitchell is the least effective of the three, yet the supermax was a likely outcome for her free agency given how the process went down. In order to guarantee that they would keep Mitchell, the Fever had to send her a core qualifying offer. That offer is a one-year deal at the supermax – the alternative was to let Mitchell become an unrestricted free agent and risk losing her for nothing.

A supermax agreement is a far better option than that. "It was humbling for me and my family," Mitchell said of the contract. She's grateful, but also clarified that she looked at other free agency options. "I think any competitor does, but for all the right reasons I knew the Fever was a priority," she said, though the coring process meant signing elsewhere was impossible.

As has been reported, the contract will pay Mitchell more than she's made in her first eight seasons combined. It's an earned deal. Will that change her outlook when it comes to playing for non-Fever teams in the offseason?

"It would have to be a drastic, unique situation for me to go back overseas," Mitchell said. She's played in China and Israel, among other commitments across the globe. Unrivaled, where she spent the most recent offseason, is still in play going forward. "Yeah, for sure. That was good basketball and it was in the United States, so I can't really complain," Mitchell confirmed.

Mitchell is signed to Project B for its inaugural season, which is now worth keeping an eye on. As is Mitchell's health after suffering Rhabdomyolysis last fall in the WNBA Semifinals.

That's a scary injury, and one that Mitchell deemed to be from overuse. Does that alter her approach to her health this season?

"Hell no!" She said when I asked after clarifying with a staffer if she was able to cuss. "If I had to do it all over again, I'd let my body fall out the way it did. I love the game that much, I love competing that much. Lord willing, it won't happen again like that." Mitchell said it took her a few sessions of IVs and scans to be cleared, then she was back to running again after a two week period.

Rebounding is a focus

The Fever have identified an area they hope to be better this season: The boards. To get a rebound, a missed shot is required. So they'll have to be a rock-solid defensive team for this goal to bear fruit.

And grabbing a rebound also starts a transition chance. The Fever, especially when Caitlin Clark has the ball, are quite good in the open floor. Yet last season, they ranked ninth in rebounds per game and 11th in defensive rebounding. Simply put: Not good enough.

Billings will help in this area, as will Myisha Hines-Allen, the latter is one of the best non-center rebounders in the league. "I think we'll look a little bit different just because of our personnel. We have a little bit more size," White said. "I think we'll be able to do some more things on the defensive end of the floor. I think we'll hopefully be a better rebounding team as well, and that will allow us to play a little bit more in transition."

Assistant coach Briann January, who plays a major part in the Fever's defense, agreed.

"I think the personnel we have is suited to how we want to play. I'm excited to get em' going on [defense]," January said. She likes the activity level and communication skill of the frontcourt group.

Raven Johnson's positivity

Rookie guard Raven Johnson is active, always. During defensive drills, she's moving constantly and talking, then asking her new coaches a question. She seems eager to learn, something January is fond of.

She's also energetic in non-playing moments. She's always dancing when she can, including breaking out this viral classic move when I Just Wanna Rock played while the team was stretching.

"She's a bear on the defensive end of the floor. She's got great, active hands," White said.

The acclimation to Indy has been simple so far. "It's very exciting. It's fun," Johnson said of camp. It was overwhelming for Johnson to learn the depth of the playbook, but she asked Clark, per her estimate, 1,000 questions about it all. When to cut, what to do, things of that nature.

She also addressed her viral moment playing against Clark in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. "I think that's in the past. We're teammates now and have one goal, that's to win a championship."

When is Damiris Dantas coming?

Damiris Dantas currently has to get her visa sorted out before she can join the team. She hasn't been at training camp yet.

White provided an estimate for her timeline early in camp, but that timeline requires an update. "Last I heard, I think I heard potentially Thursday but I'm not sure," the head coach said. The earlier, the better as the team prepares for the season.

Sophie Cunningham's contractual comments

On her podcast "Show Me Something", Sophie Cunningham used the word "frustrating" when describing her contract reality. She inked a one-year, protected $665,000 deal with the Fever.

She later followed up in a post on social media saying that she specifically wanted a longer deal with the Fever. I asked her about all of her commentary the following day. "I just wanted to be somewhere for more than one year. I'm almost 30-years old. I want to have a home, I want to get established. And I want to get established in a place like Indiana."

Cunningham wants to hold on to her connection with Fever teammates and the franchise. She didn't want to sound snotty and ungrateful, but rather share her hope to have a longer deal. That's what she had to weigh in free agency – stay with the Fever on a one-year pact or sign elsewhere for longer.

"Other places I did [get a multi-year offer]," Cunningham said. "I just wanted to be with this group."

General manager Amber Cox wouldn't get into specifics on negotiations with a player but said, "From a front office standpoint, we're obviously planning for this season, but we have to look long term too. And there's some things and decisions we have to make right now because they're impacting what we need to do against a hard cap in the future."

Short of specifics, I can only guess. But it seems clear to me the Fever wanted a clear salary cap sheet beyond their starting five for 2027 – Mitchell will be a free agent and Clark will be eligible for a raise via the EPIC provision, how much exactly that raise will be worth is still to be determined. To keep their stars, some shorter deals were necessary now.

Staff changes

After the seemingly countless injuries from the 2025 season, I wanted to know A) if Cox made any changes to the health staff and B) how that changed their free agency approach.

"We're really excited about the wonderful things happening in the [WNBA]. And part of that is just adding additional resources. We had some people depart from our team, so we've added some new people, and just added positions," Cox responded. "So really thinking about bringing in the best of the best, we want this to be the best experience possible from top to bottom for every single player."

She feels like that desire has been achieved. As for the roster, her only commentary was that the team wants to be smart about how they are playing their players. I expect the Fever will be a bit more mindful when it comes to the minutes put on their stars this season.

Thank you for reading. The Fever kick off preseason play on Saturday, and I'll have a story on it next week. Sign up and it will be sent directly to your email.