Fever potentially not making Commissioner's Cup championship has a silver lining

From the front office to the players on the court, nearly everyone associated with the Indiana Fever has been clear about one thing: this team wants to win a championship, and they want it this year.

For many, the Commissioner's Cup was meant to be a kind of litmus test for the team the Fever put together in the offseason; Caitlin Clark's injury and subsequent (minimum) two-week absence from the court wasn't part of the plan.

With Clark and teammate Sophie Cunningham out and the Fever struggling to make schemes designed around their centerpiece work without her, the idea of the Fever bringing home the Cup seems less likely than it did mere weeks ago.

And while that's a disappointment, it also has an upside: if the Fever don't win the Commissioner's Cup, the team will get more time to rest (instead of having to prepare for a heated battle with the winner of the Western Conference). Plus, it's worth noting that many teams that have won the prize have ended up losing in the WNBA Finals at the end of the season.

What is the Commissioner's Cup in the WNBA?

The Commissioner's Cup is an annual in-season competition between all the teams in the league. Beginning June 1, games are designated as Cup matches, and those wins help boost a team's overall chances at snagging the prize. The two teams at the top of each conference will go head-to-head to win $500,000 in prize money and the trophy.

The last four Commissioner's Cups were won by the Seattle Storm (2021), Las Vegas Aces (2022), New York Liberty (2023), and Minnesota Lynx (2024).

READ MORE: Caitlin Clark would be $10M richer if a predictably annoying obstacle backed off

This year's Commissioner's Cup began on June 1. All 36 games played between now and June 17 will count toward both the regular season standings and the Commissioner's Cup standings.

The Fever are in the Eastern Conference, and right now the Liberty are expected to run away with the entire show and face off against the winner of the Western Conference (the Liberty are followed by the Dream, the Mystics, the Sky, the Fever, and the Sun as of June 2).

The Fever's win against the Mystics on Tuesday will help boost the team's rankings, but it's still unclear how well they will fare — a lot will depend on their upcoming game against the Sky and how quickly Clark can get back on the court. On June 3 the Fever announced they have partnered with Peace Learning Center as the team's beneficiary throughout the challenge.