Minneapolis/St. Paul – The Minnesota Lynx today announced the team has signed guard Aari McDonald. In a corresponding move, the Lynx have waived guard Eliška Joklová.
McDonald, a 5-6 guard, joins Minnesota after most recently spending the 2025 season with the Indiana Fever, where she averaged 9.8 points on 42.9% shooting from the field, 4.7 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game in 20 contests, including 13 starts. Her top performance of last season came against the Phoenix Mercury on July 30, when she totaled 27 points on 7-of-11 (63.6%) shooting from the floor, and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, while adding four assists and two steals in Indiana’s 107-101 victory.
A Fresno, Calif. native, McDonald was originally selected third overall by the Atlanta Dream in the 2021 WNBA Draft. She spent three seasons with Atlanta before joining the Los Angeles Sparks and holds career averages of 8.8 points on 39.5% shooting from the field, 3.1 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game across five WNBA seasons. McDonald earned WNBA All-Rookie Team honors in 2021 and helped the Dream advance to the postseason in 2023, marking the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2018.
McDonald began her collegiate career at the University of Washington before joining the University of Arizona, where she played three seasons and helped lead the Wildcats to their first-ever NCAA Final Four and National Championship appearances in 2021. During her collegiate career, McDonald was named the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award winner in 2020, Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2021 and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in both 2020 and 2021.
