Fever splash in free agency
Indiana’s front office has been active in free agency, reportedly re-signing Lexie Hull to a multi‑year deal and signing Kelsey Mitchell to a one‑year, $1.4 million contract while adding Monique Billings and courting Sophie Cunningham. (youtube.com). Media coverage frames these moves as building depth around Caitlin Clark and Aaliyah Boston rather than chasing only star power. (youtube.com)
Indiana has spent the opening days of WNBA free agency keeping its backcourt intact and adding veteran depth around Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. (wnba.com) Kelsey Mitchell is returning on a one-year, $1.4 million supermax deal, according to ESPN and IndyStar. The contract matches the new top salary created under the league’s 2026 labor deal. (espn.com; indystar.com; wnba.com) The Fever also re-signed Lexie Hull on April 11, signed forward Monique Billings on April 11, and re-signed guard Sophie Cunningham on April 12. Indiana’s official team site listed all four moves in a three-day burst before the April 13 draft. (fever.wnba.com; fever.wnba.com; fever.wnba.com; spotrac.com) Those moves come after a 2025 season in which Indiana reached the WNBA semifinals and pushed the Las Vegas Aces to five games. The Fever’s season ended with a 107-98 overtime loss in Game 5 on September 30, 2025. (basketball-reference.com; fever.wnba.com) The money changed fast this spring. The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association announced a tentative seven-year collective bargaining agreement on March 20 that lifts the 2026 salary cap to $7 million from $1.5 million in 2025 and raises the year-one maximum salary to $1.4 million. (wnba.com) That new system helps explain why Indiana could pay Mitchell at the top of the market while still filling out the roster with role players who fit its style. Hull was a restricted free agent after Indiana extended her a qualifying offer, which gave the Fever matching rights before the new deal was completed. (sports.yahoo.com; spotrac.com) Mitchell, 30, is coming off one of the best scoring seasons in franchise history. ESPN reported she became the first Fever player to average 20 points in a regular season, then averaged 22.3 points in the playoffs. (espn.com) Hull’s case is different. She averaged 7.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 44 games in 2025, numbers that reflect a lower-usage role built on defense, rebounding and spot-up shooting rather than primary scoring. (spotrac.com; sports.yahoo.com) Billings gives Indiana another veteran frontcourt option after eight WNBA seasons. The Fever said she played 26 games for the Golden State Valkyries in 2025 and averaged 7.3 points while adding 21 blocks and 16 steals. (fever.wnba.com) Cunningham brings back a wing who shot 43.2 percent from three-point range in 30 games last season before an injury ended her year. Indiana also credited her with 13 points and seven rebounds in the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup title game. (fever.wnba.com; indystar.com) The result is a roster build that leans less on one splashy addition than on keeping productive pieces around Clark, Boston and Mitchell. Indiana opens the next phase of that plan with free agency still moving and the April 13 draft next on the calendar. (indystar.com; wnba.com)
