Fever ties WNBA record for most losses in a season. 'That's very tough to swallow for me.'

Carlos Knox knew this wasn’t going to be a statistically successful season. The Indiana Fever were 2-7 when he took over as interim coach for the fired Marianne Stanley in late May. He said throughout the summer this was a developmental season for Indiana, and success would be based not on wins and losses, but the progression of the team’s seven rookies. From that perspective, he’s satisfied, even though he doesn't know if he'll be around to see that future. He said before the Fever's final home game Friday he hadn't had any conversations with the front office regarding his role going forward.

But he wasn’t expecting 18 consecutive losses to end the season. He wasn’t expecting to tie the WNBA record of 31 losses in a year, which the Fever did in their final game Friday, a 95-82 defeat in Washington. Tulsa lost 31 games in 2011.

The dichotomy between setting a foundation for the future and the lack of tangible success led to conflicting emotions for Knox as the season ended. Logically, he knows the team needed to fail and learn and grow, that all of it was necessary. It didn’t make the losing any less frustrating.

“That’s very tough to swallow for me,” he said. “I just have to keep telling myself exactly what this year was about from a developmental standpoint. We wanted to make sure that we improved in a lot of different areas and we actually did. We improved in a lot of areas. But for the most part, yes, that’s disturbing to me, especially who I am and what my resume represents.”

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The game itself was what became a standard Fever performance throughout the past two winless months. They struggled with size; Elena Delle Donne feasted down low for 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Indiana, as it has often done throughout the season, avoided a blowout with some timely shooting, but the talent gap between the Fever (5-31) and the playoff-bound Mystics was just as obvious as it was in Washington’s domination two days earlier in Indianapolis.

Now, another dubious record is coming into the Fever’s sights. The record for longest losing streak is 20 games. Indiana will have to win one of its first two games of 2023 to avoid it. By the time the season starts, the franchise will have gone almost 11 months without a win.

In the coming days, Knox and his staff will meet with each member of the team to go over offseason plans. Some will go overseas to play in different leagues, others will stay in the United States and train. It will begin the next step of interim general manager Lin Dunn's ambitious rebuild attempt as the rookies enter their first offseasons as professionals. Those offseasons started the moment the buzzer sounded in Washington. Knox's message to his team postgame, according to guard Lexie Hull was "Don’t let anybody pass you, work hard and get better.”

“I wanted to appreciate their effort, finishing strong each and every game," Knox said. "I wanted to make sure they understood our love for them as a coaching staff and just try to provide all the inspiration that I can for the offseason coming up. Making sure that they understand that they have to get better as professional athletes, but great experience.”

Hull, one of Indiana's four first-round picks in the 2022 draft, was one of several rookies who played some of her best basketball in August. She twice set career scoring highs in the final two weeks of the season. Defensive-minded forward Emily Engstler found her stride late offensively, peaking with 16 points against the Mystics on Friday. Second-rounder Destanni Henderson entered the starting lineup late in the year and played well enough for Knox to call her the point guard of the future pregame. Progress like that is why Knox and the Fever are looking forward to the future, even in one of the worst seasons in WNBA history.

“It’s a little bittersweet," Hull said. "I think we definitely wanted a better outcome with the season, wanted to come to this point with a better record. But I think we’re excited for the potential that we have, and we’ve seen it in spurts and in plays and in moments and games, our potential. And so I think we’re just really excited.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever tie WNBA record for most losses in a season, finish 5-31