Is the most important position in the WNBA changing?

Yahoo

25-06-2025

It's well known that power forwards and bigs have traditionally been the most dominant positions in the WNBA , and those players have had a stranglehold on the MVP award over the past decade.
This remains the case today, with stars like A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Alyssa Thomas among the marquee league's players.
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But with star talent like Caitlin Clark, Jackie Young and Sabrina Ionescu's ascensions, and rookie Paige Bueckers showing signs of promise, could we be on the verge of seeing guards emerge as the WNBA's premier position?
On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant broke down whether a changing of the guard might be underway.
Keita: Guys, we've seen point guards rise to prominence of late. Caitlin Clark right now is still second in MVP odds, and she was in the top five last year in terms of the final votes. Paige Bueckers is also looking good, and Jackie Young has done phenomenal things, not only in the WNBA but we also saw her impact in the Olympics. We're seeing the guards starting to raise their hands and show their importance despite their lack of size. So when you think about the role of the power forward, in terms of positions, what would be the biggest potential threat to their dominance moving forward?
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Pickman: It's about asking the question, are we in an era where the importance of the power forward is a product of who the specific players are, or is it a product of how basketball is being played and the positional landscape? Is the importance of power forward just a product of Alyssa Thomas, Breanna Stewart, A'ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier being the best players in the league? Because in 2013, all five members of the All-WNBA first team were forwards. So looking ahead, the question is, will we have an All-WNBA first team where Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu and Paige Bueckers are three of the five members? I'm just throwing out scenarios right now, but in five years, could it be Clark, Ionescu, Bueckers and JuJu Watkins, for example, and we don't have one of these kinds of unicorn bigs in there? It's an interesting question, and it's one that I've actually posed to some people around the league.
Karl Smesko, the head coach of the Atlanta Dream, is an interesting test case because they've relied on these double bigs a lot this year with two centers (instead of) having one of these unicorn forwards. He basically said he thought it was a realistic possibility that things would shift as the makeup of the WNBA shifts. But another interesting name to consider going forward is (UCLA's) Lauren Betts, because she could very well be the top pick in next year's draft. As of now, she's a pretty traditional five. We'll see how much she's going to step out and shoot 3s this year alongside her sister (Sienna), who's around 6-foot-4, but she's a much more traditional five. What happens if she becomes one of the most dominant players in the league going forward? A lot of this is frankly just a product of who's in the league at that moment in time, and what their skill set is overall.
Merchant: I think we have enough young and dominant power forwards to sustain the current trend for a little while here. Napheesa Collier was drafted in 2019, and Satou Sabally was drafted in 2020, and she's another one of those combo three-fours who's been exceptional. Also, you still see the importance of the power forward when you look at the teams that have struggled to meet expectations this year. For the Aces, part of their struggles is because they don't have a second forward to complement A'ja Wilson. For the Indiana Fever, part of their struggles is they're too small, and they don't really have a power forward who's played particularly well this season. They're just sort of masquerading with Sophie Cunningham at that spot, and also Natasha Howard hasn't performed up to her expectations.
When I look at the next generation of players coming in, (UConn's) Sarah Strong is in there, and she could be an excellent power forward when she gets to the WNBA. She could already be the best player in college basketball next season. When you think about team-building right now, you can't win a title without getting through Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and A'ja Wilson. So at a certain point, you have to figure that out first, and that inherently ends up making better power forwards. I didn't even mention Kiki Iriafen yet, she's been awesome as a rookie, definitely top three. Janelle Salaün is also a great power forward, and when I think about next year's draft, even though Awa Fam is center-sized, she plays like a power forward. So there is a nice young crop of power forwards still coming through. A lot of them grew up watching players like Candace Parker, Breanna Stewart and Elena Delle Donne and wanted to model their games after them. So that pipeline could still continue.
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Keita: There are also so many more players you can see who are developing their games right now to become better power forwards. I think of Ezi Magbegor working to get her outside shot going, and I'm looking at Angel Reese trying to become more of a distributor and develop her outside shot. So you're seeing people are adapting. You mentioned earlier that it's a copycat league, so people are watching who's getting to their bag in terms of buckets, efficiency, wins and impacting the league in a dominant way — and it's still the power forward position. But it will be interesting to see if the guards start to pose a threat to the power forwards, or if the power forwards are here to stay.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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