Indiana Fever guard Aari McDonald has been a revelation this season for the team. The hardship signee has come in and completely changed the face of the Fever's defense off the bench, while also providing the exact type of facilitation Indiana was missing with Caitlin Clark hurt.
Of course, all good things come to an end - that's the way of things. And, with McDonald, the fact that her contract was an emergency hardship deal means that once the team is back to 10 available players - so, whenever Clark or Sophie Cunningham - comes back from injury, McDonald will have to be cut from the team.
As Chloe Peterson of The Indy Star explains, unless the Fever win out the McDonald sweepstakes after somehow cutting enough players to get her back, it's just not in the cards. So, Indiana will need to sit in their mistake once she's off the squad, understanding that they should have invested more in sound guard depth this offseason in addition to their veteran frontcourt additions.
McDonald is going to walk once her contract is up with Fever
McDonald's contract will be done once the Fever get back to 10 available players, and that'll make her an automatic unrestricted free agent. Ironically, the team that could use her services the most is the one the Fever just played - the Chicago Sky. They just lost veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot for the season with a torn ACL, and she'd fit right into their starting lineup.
Indiana would also have to wait a certain amount of days before picking McDonald back up - 10 days, to be specific. With teams like the Sky and the Connecticut Sun for example likely needing some depth due to international players departing or injuries, it's hard to imagine a world where McDonald would still be available to the Fever, anyway, after that 10 day window.
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In her last game versus the Sky, McDonald had 12 points, three steals, two assists, a block, and shot 50 percent from three point range.
Clark coming back will relieve the loss of McDonald, of course, but having her come off the bench behind Clark would have been a spectacular tool for head coach Stephanie White to have in her bench belt. Sydney Colson will need to step it up on both ends of the floor to try and alleviate the loss of McDonald when the Fever get healthy again.