Opinion | Caitlin Clark is not overhyped — but the WNBA was underestimated

It’s been a slow start to her rookie campaign for the WNBA’s newest star Caitlin Clark, whose Indiana Fever have dropped their first two games of the season in front of record crowds. This isn’t cause for panic, or for questioning Clark’s ability to succeed in the pros. Rather, for Clark and for the bevy of new fans tuning in to the WNBA to watch the record-breaking former Iowa standout, this week should serve as a primer on the high level of play in the W compared to college.

Clark struggled in her season opener against the Connecticut Sun, scoring 20 points and committing 10 turnovers. In the Fever’s next game, their home opener against the New York Liberty, Clark was held to just 9 points on 2-for-8 shooting — the first time since her freshman year at Iowa the star was held to single-digit scoring. On Saturday, she makes her highly anticipated New York City debut, which is being broadcast live on ABC.

These early growing pains are unsurprising given the quality of competition Clark is facing in the W, particularly to start the season. The Sun and the Liberty boast two of the most stifling defenses in the league, with elite defenders like Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington and New York’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton tasked with stopping Clark.

After a college career that saw scoring records, logo threes and dominance over NCAA Division I defenses, Clark has already drawn legions of new fans to the WNBA. She’s helped the Fever set ESPN viewership records through their first two games, while opposing teams are moving their matchups against Indiana to bigger arenas to accommodate the demand to see the young star.

It’s unsurprising that these new fans might not have expected such a slow start by Clark, but those who have been around the league for years have cautioned for weeks to temper expectations for Clark’s rookie year.

“Reality is coming. We all went through it,” Diana Taurasi said on “SportsCenter” last month. “That happens on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”

Those comments were often framed as Taurasi having “beef” with Clark, but it was just a  statement of fact: The W consists of veteran players with years of experience, and with just 12 teams currently in the league, rosters are stacked enough that coaches can truly play to scouting reports. This early in her pro career, Clark is facing defenses that can exploit her known weaknesses (like her midrange game and her ballhandling) as she adjusts to the higher level of play.

For her part, Clark appears entirely aware of what she’s facing in the pros. “The physicality is definitely up there. ... I’m easily pushed off screens,” she said after Thursday’s loss. “The game seems a little fast for me right now. The more I play and the more comfortable I get, it’s going to slow down a little bit. It will be easier for me to make reads, see things develop.”

There were still some flashes of Clark’s college brilliance against the Liberty — she notched 6 assists, including a needle-threading pocket pass to Aliyah Boston, last year’s No. 1 draft pick and Rookie of the Year. You can expect to see more of that as the two establish their chemistry.

The transition from college to the pros is often a rocky one in both the men’s and women’s game — Victor Wembanyama, the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick last year, struggled in his Summer League debut back in July, and then went on to win Rookie of the Year. The women face a different set of challenges, however, with such a short turnaround time from the end of the college season to the draft to the start of the WNBA season. The WNBA draft was a little more than a month ago, and Clark and her teammates have only had 12 practices together since. There is no equivalent WNBA summer league, and the Fever played just two preseason games. That also means the coaches have to experiment with plays and lineups in season.

Clark was never going to burst into the WNBA and immediately turn her team into a contender. That’s an unrealistic expectation to place on any player, especially one who’s become the face of a new era of the W and women’s basketball fandom at the age of 22. The Fever are still in a transition process after seven straight seasons without a playoff appearance. And while Clark and Boston are key pieces in that process, no team rebuilds overnight.

So no, Caitlin Clark was not overhyped; the rest of the league was underestimated. New fans tuning in to see Clark will get to see her game grow and evolve, while learning about veterans who’ve been doing this at a high level for years. Welcome to the WNBA.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com