Kelsey Mitchell has officially been designated a core player for the first time in her career.
The Indiana Fever extended a core qualifying offer to Mitchell on Thursday, solidifying their exclusive negotiating rights with the longtime Indiana player. In return, Mitchell gets a guaranteed supermax offer, which is around $249,000 for the 2025 season.
This core offer to Mitchell has long been expected of the Fever, who are hoping to keep their backcourt of Mitchell and Caitlin Clark intact for at least the near future. Mitchell and Clark banded together for arguably the most efficient backcourt in the league in 2024, both averaging 19.3 points per game — Clark scored three more total points than Mitchell during the regular season.
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Mitchell, the No. 2 pick in 2018, has played for Indiana her entire seven-year career. She was the team’s leading scorer in five of those seasons, excluding her rookie year in 2018 and 2024. She is enjoying the best years of her career right now as an All-Star selection in 2023 and ‘24, and was expected to be one of the top players in the free agency market this offseason.
Mitchell is just the fifth player the Fever have cored in the 25-year history of the franchise. Indiana cored Natalie Williams in 2005, Tamika Whitmore and Tamika Catchings in 2008, and Candice Dupree in 2018.
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Under the current collective bargaining agreement, which is set to be renegotiated before the 2026 season, Mitchell can be cored for up to two seasons.
Mitchell can negotiate a deal for longer than one season, but she is unlikely to sign a deal past 2025 because of the new CBA, which will likely exponentially increase salaries for players across the league. If the new CBA does not affect core years, the Fever will be able to core Mitchell again in 2026 for another supermax offer.
If Mitchell does not want to return to the Fever, she could negotiate a sign-and-trade to a different team, similar to how Satou Sabally is leaving the Dallas Wings. Following the season, Mitchell talked about how she’s always seen Indianapolis as a home for her, but she also needs to be selfish about the free agency process.
The Fever already have nine players under contract for 2025, with seven of them on rookie contracts. That leaves Indiana with ample cap room, around $657,000, to both pay a supermax salary to Mitchell and be active in negotiations with some of the top players in free agency.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever core longtime player Kelsey Mitchell
