Aliyah Boston has made a habit out of making the players around her better. It's been her calling card since college, where she won the National Championship, as well as the AP Player of the Year and NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards.
As Boston taps into a new level of her potential as a facilitator, however, this invaluable development may be the key to unlocking Caitlin Clark's full potential.
Boston does a bit of everything on the court, which is why she was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft. She's a prolific rebounder, an excellent defender, an overwhelming post scorer, and a willing passer who can create from multiple angles.
When Clark went down with a left quad strain, however, Boston evolved from a willing passer into a top-tier facilitator.
Boston averaged 2.3 assists per contest through the first four games of the 2025 season—all of which were played with Clark. During the reigning Rookie of the Year's five-game absence, however, Boston took her production to another level.
The former South Carolina Gamecocks star averaged 5.2 assists per game with Clark sidelined, and there's every reason to believe she can sustain that elite production.
Aliyah Boston's facilitating can help Caitlin Clark improve efficiency
Clark shouldered quite a workload through four games, leading the Fever in points, assists, field goal attempts, and three-point field goal attempts. She thrived individually under those conditions, averaging 19.0 points and 9.3 assists per game.
Unfortunately, Clark also posted a slash line of .403/.314/.750, and committed 5.0 turnovers and 4.0 personal fouls per game during that time.
Those numbers are a reflection of how heavy the burden has been for the Fever superstar. It's also a clear sign of how important it will be for Indiana to find a way to alleviate some of the pressure that she's facing moving forward.
Boston's uptick in playmaking usage and production has created the perfect path to a more balanced offensive system that accentuates Clark's strengths and limits wear and tear.
Boston is a force of nature with the ball in her hands, combining skill and power in a way to which few can compare. That enables her to post up, face up, and even take the ball at the top of the key to find an open teammate for an efficient look.
For as dynamic as Clark is on the ball, Boston's emergence as a high-level facilitator should be the impetus for the former Iowa Hawkeyes star to play more without it.
Those catch-and-shoot opportunities would not only lighten the workload, but improve the odds of Clark's sustained success. Furthermore, it'd create more opportunities for Boston and teammates other than Clark to score, as defenders would inevitably cheat off of their assignment to account for Clark's movement.
In a sense, Boston can function in a manner similar to how the Golden State Warriors utilize Draymond Green to create shots for Stephen Curry—only with more proficiency as a scorer.