Indiana Fever waives team’s 2024 second-round pick

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana Fever announced that it has waived its second-round pick from this year’s WNBA Draft.

Indiana waived guard Celeste Taylor on Tuesday and activated forward Damiris Dantas.

Taylor was selected 15th overall in this year’s draft. The former Ohio State guard played in only five regular season games for the Fever this year, averaging just 3.2 minutes per game. She has scored a total of 3 points this entire season.

Back in February, the Fever announced it had signed Dantas to a multi-year contract. Dantas, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft, has not played at all this season due to injury.

“Dantas gives us a WNBA veteran with experience in the post and her international experience in the Olympics will also benefit our team,” Fever General Manager Lin Dunn said in a news release after Dantas’ signing back in February. “She will be a tremendous addition on both ends of the floor as well as in our locker room.”

Dantas last played in the WNBA back in 2022 with the Minnesota Lynx. That season, she averaged 5.1 points and 3.8 rebounds for the Lynx.

The Fever is gearing up to face the Seattle Storm on Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT. It will be the third straight road game for Indiana.

The Fever is coming off a one-point loss to the Sky on Sunday afternoon. The defeat snapped the Fever’s four-game winning streak.

“Defensively, we have to be a lot better,” Indiana guard Caitlin Clark said on Tuesday. “Obviously we really struggled there in the fourth quarter. I think we fouled to much. And like I said after the game, I think we got away with that vs. Atlanta and then it really kind of caught us vs. Chicago.”

This will be the third time this regular season that the Fever has played the Storm. Seattle won the previous two meetings.