Lin Dunn had 3-year plan to fix Fever. Her faith in a first-time head coach is paying off.

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever general manager Lin Dunn has a three-year rebuild plan, and it’s something she references constantly.

It started when she became Fever interim general manager in February 2022 and developed a blueprint to get Indiana, who hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2016, back to the postseason within three years.

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Now, technically, Dunn is in Year 3 of her rebuild. But with the coaching change following the 2022 season, she likes to call it Year 2.5.

“We had to restart, rebuild, recharge, reboot, whatever you word you want to say, the Fever franchise, and I feel like where we are, I anticipated that we would be challenging for a playoff spot Year 3," Dunn said. “... We feel like we're building a real good core there, even though we're young, that can compete at the highest level. So I like where we are. I would say we're a little bit ahead of schedule.”

Back-to-back No. 1 picks help (a lot), but one of the most important parts of the rebuild was Dunn's hiring of Christie Sides. A first-time head coach, Sides was hired prior to the 2023 season, tasked with turning around what had become a perennially losing franchise. In the six seasons prior to Sides' arrival, Indiana had a 45-147 record (.234 winning percentage) — among the worst mark in all major North American team sports.

That futility led to a lack of stability. The Fever are on their fourth coach in the seven years since Stephanie White (who now coaches the Connecticut Sun) left for Vanderbilt in 2016. None of those coaches lasted more than three years: Pokey Chatman went 28-74 in three seasons from 2017-19, Marianne Stanley had a 14-49 record in parts of three seasons from 2020-22, and interim coach Carlos Knox went 3-24 following Stanley’s firing in 2022.

Throughout all of those coaching changes, the Fever couldn’t build a strong culture, or even have the stability of the same coaching staff year over year.

Now, about a year and a half into Sides’ tenure, Dunn is confident in her progress.

“One of the things that really goes into being consistently successful is stability, and I think stability at the top is key,” Dunn said. “And I think since coach White left, we've had 1, 2, 3, 4, I don't know how many head coaching changes. And when you have head coaching changes, you have assistant coaching changes. So it's like a roller coaster, and so it's hard to grow that stability. I like what Christie has done. I like what she did last year.

“...I think what we're trying to do is grow stability. You know what to expect. You know what the system is going to be. You know it's not constantly changing. And so we're trying to get stable with our players, stable with our growth.”

Sides brought the Fever from five wins in 2022 to 13 in 2023.

One of Sides’ priorities coming in as a first-time head coach was to build a strong culture — she wanted to set tough expectations, but also make sure players enjoyed showing up to practice and games every day.

That was something she easily accomplished.

“It was fun to play throughout the year,” Fever guard Lexie Hull said following the 2023 season. “(In 2022), the second half was tough. This year, I feel like there was hope in every game, we were competitive in every game, so it’s just exciting that we’re being led by a really good group of people and a group that I believe in, our team believes in.”

What Sides wanted to stress most was that improving is a process: the Fever weren’t going to be immediately successful. To get out of the hole the Fever were in, it would take a couple seasons, a couple high draft picks, and a lot of practice to just get to the playoffs.

With back-to-back No. 1 picks (Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark), sold-out crowds and a surging team, the Fever are firmly in the hunt for a playoff spot at 13-15 with 12 games left in the season. After a brutal start this year, the Fever have won 10 of their past 15 games, and ESPN gives them a 94% chance of making the playoffs.

“I think the one thing that keeps popping in my head is don’t get too high and don’t get too low,” Sides said Tuesday. “Stay with the process. As a coach, you play these two games, beat these two really good teams, and you could get ahead of yourself. We’ve just got to keep building blocks, just keep building blocks. … When you’re winning, you’ve got to find a way to get better, get to the next step.”

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67 .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lin Dunn had 3-year plan to fix Fever. Her faith in a first-time head coach is paying off.