The Indiana Fever entered the 2025 WNBA Draft in a position they hadn’t been in for quite some time: trying to improve a playoff team.
The Fever had spent several years languishing at the bottom of the WNBA standings before winning No. 1 overall picks in back-to-back draft lotteries, which they used to select budding stars in Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark. Since then, Indiana has enjoyed steady improvement, most recently going 20-20 in 2024 and making the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
After the additions of veterans Natasha Howard, DeWanna Bonner and Sophie Cunningham in free agency, the Fever are now a well-rounded team that will be expected to compete for a WNBA championship. Their draft strategy for 2025, then, was to complement those players by making draft picks that smoothed over any remaining cracks in the roster. They prioritized hard-working, young talent that will not need to be focal points for a team that already has its fair share of stars.
Indiana ended up with a trio of players who they believe fit that mold: Florida State forward/center Makayla Timpson, South Carolina wing Bree Hall and Gonzaga forward Yvonne Ejim. And though each of their draftees played different positions in college, they’ll all be expected to do one thing above all else…
