Caitlin Clark's home debut is a clunker, but give her time, and give her grace

Bad Fever team. Brutal early schedule. The transition is going to take time. That's just reality.

Some completely random observations from Caitlin Clark’s home debut, a 102-66 loss to last year’s WNBA finalist New York Liberty:

• First, she struggled, just as she struggled in the season opener at Connecticut, when she scored 20 points but committed 10 turnovers. This is not a criticism – that comes later – but it’s the reality of the situation. She finished Thursday night’s sold-out game with nine points on 2-of-8 shooting, 1-of-7 from three, seven rebounds, six assists, five fouls and three turnovers on a night when no Fever player, save for Katie Lou Samuelson, covered themselves in glory.

It’s going to take some time, people. This is not a good Fever team – they haven’t been any good since Tamika Catchings retired – which is why they’ve had the No. 1 pick two seasons in a row. And as gifted as Clark is, as much as she accomplished during her amazing college career, she’s not going to turn this thing around by herself or in short order. This has been a hot mess for a long time, and what makes it worse is a schedule that is unkind to say the least. The Fever start the season with Connecticut twice and New York twice, two of the WNBA’s elite teams. They continue with a Murderer’s Row of opponents in the ensuing weeks.

Clark’s clunky start? As I mentioned in a tweet last night, Peyton Manning threw three picks and lost a fumble in his debut performance against the Miami Dolphins. He set the still-standing rookie record for most interceptions thrown by a rookie quarterback (28). The Colts went 3-13 his rookie season.

How’d he turn out?

Turns out, Diana Taurasi, the long-time WNBA star, was absolutely right when she suggested Clark was going to take some time before she impacted the WNBA the way she did the college game. Here’s what Taurasi said:

“Reality is coming,” she told ESPN. “There are levels to this thing and that’s just life. We all went through it…You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time. Not saying that it’s not going to translate because when you’re great at what you do you’re just going to get better. But there’s going to be a transition period when you’re going to have to give yourself some grace as a rookie.”

I had no problem with this comment when she first shared it.

She was right then and she’s been proven correct these first two Fever games.

That’s not a slam on Clark, who will be a special player and will return the Fever to the upper echelons of the WNBA; it’s just the uncomfortable, inconvenient truth.