WNBA draft lottery: Indiana Fever earn top pick in 2023. Will they take Aliyah Boston?

The Indiana Fever will get first choice at the WNBA draft next spring.

The Fever won the league’s draft lottery on Friday night for the first time in franchise history, beating out the Minnesota Lynx for the top overall pick in the 2023 draft. The Atlanta Dream will pick third, and the Washington Mystics will pick fourth.

The Fever went just 5-31 last season, and have won double digit games just once in the past six years. Their last winning season came back in 2015, when they fell in the WNBA Finals.

Now, with new head coach Christie Sides, the Fever are ready to kick off her rebuild in the best possible way.

Though the 2022-23 season is just days old, South Carolina star Aliyah Boston is well on her way to going first in the draft come April.

Boston averaged a career-high 16.8 points and 12.5 rebounds last season with the Gamecocks while leading them to a national title. She was the unanimous national player of the year and was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

The 6-foot-5 forward could easily get the Gamecocks back to the Final Four, too. South Carolina opened the season ranked No. 1 in the country and returned four senior starters.

While a lot can change, it’s hard to imagine the Fever don’t take Boston first.

Iowa State’s Ashley Joens, Maryland’s Diamond Miller, Stanford’s Haley Jones and Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley could be lottery picks, too, and are definitely players to watch going forward.

The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 10.