WNBA: Patience paying off for Indiana Fever rookie Makayla Timpson

When the Indiana Fever chose Florida State’s Makayla Timpson in the 2025 WNBA Draft, it was more or less assumed that she’d have to earn playing time as a rookie. The Fever had taken a win-now approach in the offseason, adding veteran forwards Natasha Howard, DeWanna Bonner and Brianna Turner in free agency. Timpson wasn’t even guaranteed to make the final roster, let alone be part of the rotation.

Timpson ended up beating out several other players, though, including fellow draftees Bree Hall and Yvonne Ejim, and while her time on the court was minimal during the first month of the season, she’s slowly but surely earning the trust of her coaches. After barely playing at all in May and for much of June, Timpson has logged double-digit minutes in seven of her last nine games; most recently, she played 22 minutes in a win over the Chicago Sky, recording a career-high 14 points to go along with four rebounds and three steals.

“She’s amazing. One of the best rookies I’ve ever come across,” said Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell of Timpson. “She’s the ultimate pro. When you have locker room culture happening, you need great people to make it greater, and I think we got a good addition.”

Timpson herself was a little shyer, deflecting the credit to her teammates. “They have my back and they encourage me each and every practice, each and every game just to stay ready and stay focused. I just wanted to be who they need me to be out on the court.”

To Timpson’s credit, when a rookie gradually earns minutes on a team with championship aspirations (and, in the Fever’s case, a team with plenty of depth at that position), it’s usually an indicator of more than just a good attitude. Fever general manager Amber Cox was thrilled when Indiana got to draft Timpson at No. 19 overall, calling her a “defensive powerhouse” and praising her gifts as a rim-running athlete.

It was that defense and athleticism that earned Timpson additional playing time against Chicago. Fever head coach Stephanie White wasn’t happy with how easily the Sky were getting shot attempts, so rather than substitute another veteran, Damiris Dantas, for Howard, she put in Timpson instead.

“I felt like [the Sky] got too many easy looks. ‘KK’s’ versatility allows us to play her defensively in a different way than we can play [Dantas],” White explained after the game. “And then they had it rolling in the first half and so we just stayed with that eight or nine.”

That eight- or nine-player rotation could look different for the Fever on a game-to-game basis, which is something that White acknowledges is a double-edged sword. As much as she’d like to play everyone on her roster, both youngsters and veterans, she knows that just isn’t realistic, explaining, “One of the benefits of having a deep team is that if you don’t have it one night, somebody else does, but one of the challenges of having a deep team is that that people deserve to play that don’t always get to play.”

For Timpson, that may mean going from being the Fever’s first big off the bench to only playing mop-up minutes. This will ring especially true when the playoffs begin; teams typically shorten their rotations in the postseason, and for as well as Timpson has played lately, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see White lean on her most experienced players when the games matter the most.

For now, though, the Fever are content to enjoy Timpson’s development. On a team with three All-Stars and plenty of players who are comfortable shooting the ball, they don’t need her to do much more than rebound, defend and play with energy, and she’s been more than happy to stick to that role. According to Timpson herself, her success boils down to a simple approach—“just not be too high and not be too low”—and as she continues to get adjusted to life in the pros, one can see how well it’s been working for her.