by Chloe Peterson
Indianapolis Star
INDIANAPOLIS — As long as the Indiana Fever (8-22) don’t engineer a miraculous turnaround and reach the playoffs this season, they’ll have the best odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft lottery.
Landing the No. 1 pick for a second straight year would give the Fever the chance to possibly add a transformative talent like Iowa star Caitlin Clark, the presumptive top prospect.
The four teams who miss the playoffs go into the lottery, which is determined by combined records of the past two seasons. Through Aug. 10, the Fever are 13-53 over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. The next worst team, the Phoenix Mercury, are 24-41 over that span. Even if the Fever win their final 10 games, they will still have the worst record over the previous two seasons.
The Fever would have a 44.2% chance of the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, while the team with the second-worst record has a 27.6% chance, and the third and fourth-worst teams have a 17.8 and 10.4% chance, respectively. Indiana would not be any lower than the No. 3 pick.
If Indiana gets the No. 1 pick, the Fever may have to do some convincing to get the player they want. The top potential players in the 2024 draft, including Clark, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, LSU’s Angel Reese, and Stanford’s Cameron Brink all have options to return to college for the 2024-25 season as the NCAA gave all 2020-21 student athletes an extra season of eligibility because of COVID-19.
The Fever got the No. 1 pick for the first time in franchise history, selecting Aliyah Boston out of South Carolina in the 2023 draft.
If the Fever make the playoffs this season, they will be out of the lottery entirely no matter their record over the past two years. That scenario proves unlikely, as Indiana is currently last in the WNBA standings and 4.5 games out of a playoff spot.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star