With the No. 10 overall pick in the 2026 draft, the Indiana Fever selected South Carolina point guard Raven Johnson. In the weeks leading up to draft night, several prominent mocks had the Fever taking the 5’9” Gamecock, and it made perfect sense from the start.
Injuries ravaged Indiana’s guard rotation last season, forcing the team to sign five different guards to seven-day contracts. A platoon effort in the backcourt didn’t hold head coach Stephanie White’s group down, as it was 12 minutes away from reaching the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2015. Heading into the offseason, one of the main objectives for the Fever’s front office was to bring in experienced guards who would mesh with superstar duo Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell in a rotation prepped for a championship run. At this point, it should be clear why White and Fever CEO/GM Amber Cox saw Johnson as one of those players.
As a longtime extension of Hall of Fame coach Dawn Staley on the court, Johnson piloted an offense that featured elite post scorers and shooters who spaced the floor around them. On defense, she was the tip of the spear that tore through the best offenses of the 2020s, shrinking the floor as an unrelenting point-of-attack defender and taking away the opponent’s best scorer, no matter the position. Despite public opinion, the question at hand wasn’t how Johnson could reach the WNBA, but a matter of when.
Instead of entering the 2025 draft, Johnson chose to return to South Carolina to further develop her skills and prepare for the league in one of the nation's best locations to do so. In the last 12 collegiate drafts, Hall of Fame coach Dawn Staley has sent 13 players to the WNBA as first-round picks. Since 2020, no program has had more overall selections (15) and overall selections (15). Johnson became one of them by diversifying her shot profile while also improving her efficiency. Her finishing improved dramatically, shooting a career-high 66.7 percent at the rim and 46.2 percent in the paint. Johnson has always been a potent threat in transition, but her floor game took center stage in her last season as a Gamecock.
In an NCAA D-I leading 40 games, Johnson shot 64.2 percent in transition, scoring 28.1 percent of her offensive production on the break, placing her in the 95th percentile. Three-point shooting was a sore spot, but being a volume shooter wasn’t asked of her. Johnson had her best season from beyond the arc as a senior, achieving a shooting percentage of 39.8 percent on 2.6 attempts per game, both of which were career-highs. In nine games in the SEC and NCAA tournaments, Johnson shot a stifling 45.8 percent on 2.7 attempts. A campaign rife with development in areas that evaluators seek was the driving factor behind Johnson’s emergence as a first-round pick on draft boards across the league. After drafting her, Cox admitted as much.
“She is [SEC] Defensive Player of the Year, she is a leader, and she is a competitor from one of the greatest programs in college basketball,” said Cox on drafting Johnson. “She’s won at the highest level and has continued to grow her game. To watch her take her game to the next level, we were so pumped when she was there at ten.”
It’s no secret that decision-makers around the league held Johnson in high regard. In early April, ESPN’s Andraya Carter confirmed it.
“I’ve talked to a lot of GMs,” Carter said. “I think of one that I was on the phone with last week, and this particular GM was like, ‘Man, I love Raven.’ And I’m like, yeah, how do you not love Raven? She’s a winner. She’s a winner, and she’s grown so much offensively. I think it’s a testament to when a player grows offensively, you can trust their work ethic. She’s a leader. She’s a winner. Her teammates love to play with her. She’s an excellent defender.
We may live in a hot-take-infused culture, but it’s not far-fetched to say that Johnson is the most experienced collegiate recruit in her class. Over five seasons as a Gamecock, she has three SEC titles, an SEC Defensive Player of the Year award, five consecutive Final Four appearances, and two national championships. As the primary conductor on the floor, Johnson excelled at managing a wide range of skills, personalities, and rotations during her tenure. In her own square, Johnson’s size and versatility in the process played a decisive factor for the Fever.
“This creates some depth,” said Cox. “Raven [Johnson], while she’s played primarily point guard, she has the ability to transition and become a really great combo guard. I don’t know her exact wingspan, but we’ve heard it’s 6’2”. To be able to defend multiple positions on the court and having that for a rookie coming in for several years with Caitlin Clark and Kelsey [Mitchell], that gives us so much depth, especially on the defensive end of the floor.”
From the litany of post-draft statements from Cox and White on Johnson’s abilities and her presence as a “sponge” by asking questions and soaking in guidance, it’s clear that Indiana’s decision-makers did their homework on their first-round pick. Fans and media members did not. When Johnson checked in for the first time in the preseason, time was short before they raved in admiration of her prolific ability to flip a game on its head with her tenacious defense, wrecking passing lanes for steals and deflections, or her pro-ready court vision finding teammates in their pockets in transition and half-court sets. The only thing is that she’s been doing what wowed hundreds of thousands in preseason play for the last four years on the biggest stage in the toughest conference in college basketball.
In Columbia, Johnson’s 612 career assists rank third, and her assist-to-turnover ratio (2.86) is the best in program history. Winning SEC Defensive Player of the Year this past season, Johnson has 232 steals to her name, the eighth most by a Gamecock. It goes without saying that the criticism Johnson received for her shooting after being waved off by Clark in the 2023 Final Four shaped how many saw her as a player, much less as a first-round WNBA draft pick. Instead of allowing a single viral moment to define the trajectory of her career, Johnson transformed her game to meet the moment on the court during the 2024 NCAA tournament, averaging 7.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.8 steals en route to a second national championship. She shot 41.2 percent from beyond the arc on nearly three attempts per game (2.8) in what was a precursor to her three-point explosion as a senior.
There’s a learning curve for rookies in the regular season, and Johnson will surely find hers at some point. However, it’s the intangibles that make a difference at this stage. Johnson has those in abundance and the talent to affect the game as a five-tool player. She’s already passed the floor general test when serving passes into perfect pockets in preseason play. The rookie guard knows when to outpace defenders with her speed, where to be on the floor on cuts, and when to assist with help. Johnson protected the rim on a few defensive stands, showing that some of her most valuable skills will translate with the superstar guard duo of Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, and a Fever team that needs her IQ. Last season, the Fever posted a 102.7 defensive rating and surrendered the fourth-most points to guards (50.4). Johnson’s wrecking ball activity on defense is a welcome addition to a group that lacked energy and teeth through most of the 2025 season. It only took three preseason games to see what the future holds for Indiana’s guard rotation.
The first thing that stood out to me when I saw Johnson on a WNBA court surrounded by professionals for the first time was her size. Standing at all of 5’9” with one of the most anomalous wingspans (6.2'.5”) on a guard that I’ve ever laid eyes on, the Atlanta native already poses a physical challenge for her peers with strength rarely seen on a rookie ball handler. Surely South Carolina women’s basketball strength and performance coach Molly Binetti played a part here back in Columbia. In Johnson’s time under Staley, she quarterbacked both sides of the ball and organized the team as a bona fide traditional point guard. In her first appearance with the Fever, Johnson excelled at what she’s been doing for the past five years: running an offense to near perfection, defending the best player on defense, and creating offense for herself and others by picking apart passing lanes.
“She is a great kick-ahead guard,” White told reporters on Zoom Monday. “She gets us going in transition, she can get a rebound, she can get a steal. She’s passing that thing ahead, and she really ignites a break because of that.”
In 18 minutes against the Liberty, she totaled six points, three rebounds, eight assists (zero turnovers!), and three stocks. Albeit one performance with limited court time against New York’s starters, Johnson showed she belonged from the start, serving her eight helpers to six different players. Three went to veteran guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, with whom Johnson shared a considerable amount of minutes in the win. In the Fever’s 95-80 loss to the Dallas Wings, Johnson paced Indiana in assists (5) for the second consecutive game off the bench. She only shot 1-for-3, but made an impact on defense, collecting five steals and nine deflections.
“Defensively, she’s elite, and that’s something you never really worry about,” White continued. “We’ve drafted a lot of South Carolina players here in Indiana, going back to Tiffany Mitchell when I was here [as an assistant], and you always know that they’re going to be ready on the defensive end of the floor. Raven just has some really naturally gifted skill sets and intangibles on that end. And so she makes plays because of that.”
Against the Nigerian national team, Johnson bounced back with nine points, a team-leading seven rebounds, and two stocks. Despite only shooting 1-for-5 from three, Johnson took high-percentage shots within the flow of the offense without hesitating. With three dynamic performances on the court and a regular standout in training camp, she has the tools and mentality to carve out a successful career in the WNBA.
“She’s going to continue to grow,” White later added. “There’s going to be ebbs and flows throughout the course of the year and a career – there always are. But I think every day she has an opportunity to step on the floor she’s hungry to learn, she wants to be coached, she wants to be challenged. Having that kind of mindset and mentality is really invaluable.”
Johnson’s career has seen its fair share of highs and lows, but in every win and loss, she carried a lesson rich in experience. If the preseason performances give any indication of how she could impact the Fever, Cox and White may have the steal of the draft.