Despite the absence of star guard Caitlin Clark for most of the season, the Indiana Fever came within a hair of making the WNBA Finals in 2025, losing the semifinal series against the Las Vegas Aces 3-2. Now, it's time to look ahead to the offseason and who the team might want to consider in the WNBA Draft.
Let's look for a moment at the Fever's roster situation. Entering this uncertain offseason, the Fever have just three players under contract next season, but that includes the two most important players, Clark and Aliyah Boston. Makayla Timpson is the other. The team also has restricted free agent Lexie Hull and the reserved rights for Chloe Bibby. It's also probably fair to say that Sophie Cunningham wants to stay in Indiana, considering how much her profile has risen playing beside Clark. Finally, for the sake of things, let's assume Kelsey Mitchell wants to stick around as well, but let's probably call Natasha Howard's return a question mark, mostly because it opens up more potential players to discuss when looking ahead to the WNBA Draft.
Indiana will pick 10th in the draft. Here are some players who the team should pay attention to this season.
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, F, Baylor
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs isn't really much of a shooter, but she does basically everything else at a high level. For a Fever team that ranked eighth in the league in points allowed per game, Littlepage-Buggs' defensive versatility would be helpful.
And it's not like she's a non-entity on offense. She's only 8-for-38 in her career from 3-point range, but she's a decent midrange shooter, knocking down 39.2 percent of her looks from there last season. She's also very skilled at getting to the basket and finishing there; her 73.9 percent mark at the rim last year was 16.6 percent above the Division I average.
Gianna Kneepkens, G, UCLA
A lack of guard depth proved to be a serious issue for the Fever this season, with the team ultimately starting Odyssey Sims in the playoffs after picking her up late in the season. Finding additional shooting will be a major part of this offseason.
Enter Gianna Kneepkens, who transferred from Utah to UCLA this offseason. With the Utes, Kneepkens proved to be one of the nation's best high-volume shooters, knocking down 44.8 percent of her looks from deep last year on 6.8 attempts per game.
Sure, there are questions about her defense. There are questions about if she can evolve her offensive role to be more than just a spot-up shooter against WNBA-level defenders. But whew, that shooting is GOOD, and the Fever could probably use it.
Charlisse Leger-Walker, G, UCLA
A torn ACL sidelined Charlisse Leger-Walker last season, but she'll get a chance to show she can play through the injury concerns this season at UCLA.
Leger-Walker might be one of the best basketball minds in the sport. She plays with this kind of understanding of how to run an offense that most point guards would dream of, and she knows how to put herself in a position to succeed.
She has some inconsistency with her jump shot and the ACL tear could limit her explosiveness, but Leger-Walker would be a great backup ball-handler for this team, especially if Aari McDonald doesn't return.
Janiah Barker, F, Tennessee
There was a time, early in her collegiate career, where WNBA talent evaluators were discussing Janiah Barker as a potential No. 1 overall pick. That hasn't really panned out, as Barker hasn't developed into the two-way force that she was forecasted to be.
In theory, Barker can play the Natasha Howard role but with more versatility, as she's theoretically better at creating her own looks. But here's the thing: there's a reason I keep saying "theoretically" here. She'll look like one of the most dominant players in basketball for a stretch, and then she'll completely disappear for a different stretch. She'll shoot very well from 3-point range one season and then shoot 18.2 percent the next year.
There are the makings of a good player here, though, and it's hard to find that this late in the first round. Barker is a project, but if she shows sustained flashes this year, she might be worth the risk.