Fever have an Aari McDonald problem they need to solve

The backup point guard spot might not be as locked up as everyone thinks. When the Indiana Fever signed Aari McDonald to a hardship contract in the wake of fresh injuries to Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, and Caitlin Clark, Fever fans couldn't have expected her to debut as well as she did.

McDonald had a completely solid game with seven points, five assists, three steals, and a rebound in 27 minutes of action for the Fever in their victory over the Washington Mystics. The win brought them to 1-0 in the Commissioner's Cup, and 1-0 in the McDonald Era.

Now, her time with Indiana is likely limited. Unless the team decided to waive one of their current players, then there's no way to keep her on the roster as they'd be back to 12 players once fully healthy. It's an unfortunate part to the WNBA not having enough roster spots nor teams to roster all of the talent still out there in women's basketball - McDonald included.

The former 3rd overall pick by the Atlanta Dream still should force the Fever to have some uncomfortable conversations about not only their current roster construction, but how to build one out again next season when many free agents become available.

Fever need to find reliable backup point guard play

This is not meant to be a knock on Sydney Colson, who has had just two full games to try and act as starting point guard for Indiana since Clark went down with injury. But, McDonald is just a much more agile defender, play maker, and passer than Colson right now. She could very well be the better option to back Clark up until she's back, but then, Colson is right back to being backup again.

McDonald has exposed this flaw on the Fever in just one game. They signed several veteran forwards, like DeWanna Bonner, Brianna Turner, and Natasha Howard, this offseason. They added Cunningham via trade, and Colson via free agency. And yet, basically just Bonner has really provided impactful minutes for the Fever amongst this group.

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That's an indictment on the Fever's front office and head coach Stephanie White, as they should have tried to get someone like McDonald in addition to Bonner on this team. Instead, they have to likely let her walk once her deal is up.

Once the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is signed and players can begin signing with teams en masse, Indiana has to consider recruiting one or two more backup guards to their team to settle their offense in far more than they've been able to this season so far.