The debate over how the Indiana Fever are using Caitlin Clark has raged for months. Lakers legend and Klay Thompson’s father, Mychal Thompson, has now weighed in with a blunt assessment. Speaking on Jason Whitlock’s Fearless podcast, Thompson argued that the Fever are doing the opposite of what any team should do with a generational talent. Instead of building around Clark’s strengths, they seem to be forcing her to conform to their system.

“They’ve taken away Caitlin’s superpowers,” Thompson said. “Never seen this in any sport. It’s like taking a serve away from Serena Williams. It’s like taking the great Larry Allen and turning him into a long-snapper.”

Mychal Thompson was direct about how he believes in the principle of teams building around their elite players. And that same principle applies for Clark.

“When you have a player of that caliber, you play to their strengths, and you build around a franchise player such as that. Now, it seems that they brought a franchise player in to make them play the way they want to play as opposed to adapting to her style.”

The on-court results so far have done little to refute his argument. The Fever are currently sitting at a 6-5 record, a middling position for a team with championship aspirations. Even though Caitlin Clark has been averaging 18.7 points, 8.2 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game, her overall impact compared to expectations has remained a subject of debate.

The struggle has also been obvious at times, especially on the defensive end. She has been exposed to more defensive pressure and has found herself in foul trouble more often than usual.

That said, the Fever did win their most recent game against the Mystics, with Clark once again at the center of the performance. Perhaps that is the evidence coach Stephanie White would point to in defense of her approach: that the system, given time, can work. But at 6-5, with a roster built around the most electrifying player in the sport, the margin for patience is beginning to narrow.

Despite last-second heroics, Caitlin Clark sees room for growth in Fever performance

A last-second shot to secure a win will always sound poetic to any basketball fan. And the manner in which Caitlin Clark delivered it in last night’s game against the Washington Mystics made it even more special. Clark shook off her defender and drained a deep 31-foot logo three-pointer to put Indiana ahead 78-76, ultimately giving the Fever a dramatic victory.

But beneath this exciting last-second win storyline is a more disturbing performance detail that seems to be becoming an issue for the Fever this season. Once again, Indiana completely dominated the first half and built a 14-point halftime lead in the game. But like in many of the other games this season, they saw themselves surrender that advantage to the point of losing the lead altogether.

When asked about her game-winning shot, Clark was not focused on the heroics. Instead, she pointed out the team’s shortcomings.

“We certainly crumbled a little bit, and we would have liked to definitely have played the third a little bit better and not let them back in the game,” Clark said in the post-game conference.

For her, the priority now is to “go back and look at everything and find a way to improve and certainly improve our defense the best we can.”

But a win is a win, and Clark is happy about it. At the same time, the Fever know that relying on last-second heroics is not a formula they can count on every night.