The 2024 WNBA regular season is in its final month and the playoff picture is becoming clearer with each passing day.
While the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces remain favorites to win the title, Sue Bird believes there are three rosters no team would want to match up against in the playoffs. Among them is Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever.
On a recent episode of A Touch More podcast, the WNBA icon claimed that the rookie and her teammates would be tough to put away and warned the rest of the league that they could embark on a deep run. Explaining the reason behind her faith in the Fever, she said,
“What I’ve learned in my WNBA experience is that pace of play trumps physicality, it trumps size, it can trump experience… What I see in Caitlin, what I see in Kelsey Mitchell, they’re just like ramming it down people’s throats and it’s really hard. It can have your head spinning.”
Clark and her team have been exceptional in their first two games since the season resumed last week. They beat the Phoenix Mercury 98-89 before thrashing the Seattle Storm 92-75.
The rookie sensation averaged 26 points, 9.5 assists, and five rebounds in those two wins.
Bird lauded the guard and advised teams to pivot back to treating her like she was the sole threat on offense on her team. The icon said,
“Everybody, that’s why you have to pick Caitlin up full court…The numbers she’s putting up now, like, this is why.”
After explaining why she backed the Fever to do well in the playoffs, she named two more teams she believed would be tough to beat.
Storm and Mercury get a shoutout from Sue Bird
Bird claimed she wouldn’t want to face the Phoenix Mercury in the playoffs due to their talent and experience.
She claimed that the team is strong and the presence of two future Hall of Famers and Olympic gold medalists on the roster make them a tough matchup. She said,
“I don’t wanna see Phoenix. Kahleah Copper is balling. They’ve added Monique Billings, not trying to see that. And with D[iana Taurasi] and [Brittney Griner]… Yes, the WNBA playoffs is a series. But in the one game, those two, you just never know.”
The last team on her list was the Seattle Storm, who were yet to add Gabby Williams to their roster.
During the taping of the podcast episode, Bird implored the team to land the French star and they seemingly heard her pleas as they announced that she had signed a contract until the end of the season with the franchise.
The forward did not play in the first half of the WNBA season to prioritize her Olympics preparation.
Her efforts paid dividends as she won the Best Defensive Player, earned a spot on the All-Star Five, and led the hosts to a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Williams’ return to Seattle, where she played in 2022 and 2023, is a massive boost to the Storm’s odds of pulling off an upset in the playoffs and proving Bird right.
