Fever get defensive with draft picks

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 as a pro: play defense.

Fever add defensive versatility with Timpson and Hall

When the 2024 Fever were at the top of their game, they were tough to stop. With a pair of incredibly gifted guards in Clark and Kelsey Mitchell driving the team’s offense, Indiana was capable of putting up points in a hurry, and ended up leading the WNBA in effective field goal percentage at 52.3 percent.

There were times, however, when last year’s Fever were not clicking on all cylinders offensively, and this often spelled trouble. Indiana was rarely able to play defense at the level necessary to beat the WNBA’s better teams, ranking 11th in the league in defensive rating (107.5 points allowed per 100 possessions), which ultimately cost the Fever in their first-round playoff loss to the Connecticut Sun.

“The most important thing for us was defensive versatility,” said Fever head coach Stephanie White after the draft. “We know we have a lot of weapons on the offensive end of the floor but on those nights when we’re not making shots, we’ve got to be able to get stops. We’ve got to get better in that area.”

Timpson and Hall, who the Fever picked at No. 19 and No. 20, respectively, embody this approach as much as any other players in the 2025 draft class.

Timpson, a three-time ACC All-Defensive Team honoree during her time at Florida State, had grown into one of the country’s most prolific shot-blockers by her senior season. Described by Fever general manager Amber Cox as “a defensive powerhouse,” Timpson averaged 3.1 blocks per game (No. 3 in Division I) as a senior, along with 17.5 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals. Cox praised her rim-running ability while also noting Timpson’s massive 6-foot-10 wingspan as another reason for drafting her.

Hall, meanwhile, never put up gaudy statistics in college, but her impact was felt nonetheless. A strong, physical wing player, Hall was one of the best perimeter defenders in Division I, won a pair of national championships at South Carolina—a program that has produced a great number of WNBA players with Dawn Staley at the helm.

“Obviously, South Carolina is a team that is packed with All-Americans, and she played that defensive role every night,” Cox said of Hall. “She guarded the best player on the other team … but when she had the opportunity to take 3-pointers, she was very efficient in that role as well.”

“I think the most important thing when you’re scouting and evaluating players is to look behind the curtain,” White added. “How coachable are they? Are they willing to be pushed? Are they willing to play different roles? What has their development been like?”

White’s words ring especially true for Hall, who, just like in college, will be asked to play a defense-first role in Indiana—something that, by all accounts, she should have no problem doing. She’ll have to beat out her fellow draftees first, though, and perhaps a veteran or two as well.

Which of the Fever’s draftees will make the team?

As successful as the Fever’s draft strategy was, they’ll still be faced with the difficult decision of which of their draftees to carry on their final roster.

Making this decision even more difficult will be the fact that the Fever can only afford to roster 11 players for 2025. According to Her Hoop Stats, Indiana currently has 10 players under contract with $112,273 in salary cap space, which isn’t enough to squeeze in two rookie-scale salaries; both Timpson and Hall would make $69,267 in 2025, while Ejim would make $66,079.

The Fever could choose to cut one of their players whose 2025 salary will be unprotected, in which case multiple draftees could make the roster. The most realistic of these candidates is probably Brianna Turner, who is set to make $85,000 this season; if the Fever waive her, they’d have two roster spots available for rookies instead of one, but would still only be able to carry 11 players instead of 12.

Competition in Fever training camp will be fierce. Timpson and Ejim will be battling Turner and Jillian Alleyne, who previously played in the WNBA for the Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics, for spots in the team’s frontcourt. Hall will be competing with former Dallas Wing Jaelyn Brown at guard, as well as any other players the Fever may bring into their training camp in the coming days.

Whichever combination of rookies and veterans fill out the rest of the Fever’s opening-day roster, they’ll have to do what White alluded to after the draft: defend multiple positions and play roles that are conducive to Indiana taking that next step as a championship contender. The Fever already have the star power to take them to the playoffs, but the right combination of complementary players could be what truly puts them over the top.