September 14, 2023
Locked On Women’s Basketball: What’s ahead for Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and Indiana Fever? Lin Dunn tells us
By The Next
Howard and Lin Dunn discuss the Fever's 2023 season, the growth of the young team, Aliyah Boston's rookie year and more
It’s time for another Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast episode. Indiana Fever general manager Lin Dunn said she had a three-year plan when she took the reins for the team, and year 2 saw exponential growth. Everything from a win total jumping from 5 to 13 to the development of Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, while Aliyah Boston had one of the best rookie seasons in league history. So what does it all mean for the Fever project, and how is Lin going to attack the offseason ahead? She joins host Howard Megdal for a revealing-as-always conversation.
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Lin Dunn talks about the progression of the Fever and if she saw the Fever as one of the best eight teams:
“Howard, I did. And after watching the two games last night, with Minnesota and Chicago, I really felt like I was reinforced again that we are one of the top eight teams and that we made the progress that we needed to; we had some bumps in the road with injuries. I’m still convinced how NaLyssa Smith had been healthy. That part of the season where she was out, we could have very easily been in the place of one of those two as the seventh or eighth seed in the playoffs because of the progress that we made. But we didn’t get in. So it’s an exciting time knowing that we can build on what we did to go from five wins to 13 wins and eight more wins with a very young talent team.”
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Lin Dunn talks about Aliyah Boston and the year she had as a rookie:
“It’s unbelievable. I mean, it’s never happened before. We’ve never had a rookie, a first-round draft pick, lead the league in field goal shooting percentage. It’s never happened. And so that’s an indication to you of what an amazing season Aliyah Boston had. I mean, we knew she’d be good. I mean, we’d watched her at South Carolina. I’ve watched her on USA national team trials and we’ve met with her. We knew what kind of character she had. And so we knew she would be good, but we had no idea how good how composed, how much poise she would have when she started getting double-teamed, and how she makes her teammates better. You know, a lot of players have that ability, but not often as a rookie.
And so there’s just so many things that were exceptional about her and it just reinforces what a great player we’ve got to build around for the future. And she’s just as phenomenal off the court in the community with fans, with her teammates, she really is the whole package.”
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