![\"Sue](\"https:\/\/platform.swishappeal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/154\/2025\/09\/DSC_52401-copy.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,8.4160052910053,100,83.167989417989\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSue Bird. Christina Merrion.<\/p>\n
Take a look at the current and coming generation of point guards, those who will collect WNBA All-Star honors and appear poised to captain Team USA, just as Bird did. Not many of them, if any, play like Bird.<\/p>\n
Whereas Bird perfected the balance between scoring and assisting, never overextending herself as she determined what her team needed, young lead guards inhabit a more aggressive mindset, with getting their own points now a priority. That\u2019s not an indicator of selfishness, rather a reflection of the realization that a primary ball handler who is a scoring threat makes her team\u2019s offense much more dangerous. Examples abound, whether it\u2019s Paige Bueckers finding her middie, Sabrina Ionescu and Caitlin Clark launching from behind the arc or Hannah Hidalgo and MiLaysia Fulwiley winding their way to the hoop.<\/p>\n
Today, a young Sue Bird debuting for the Seattle Storm in the 2026 WNBA season likely would be asked to hunt 3s like Ionescu and Clark, taking them not just when she\u2019s open, but to create potential openings for her teammates. Her nearly 40 percent career 3-point percentage would be weaponized in ways it wasn\u2019t until the latter stages of her 19-season WNBA career. Those more fleeting moments when Bird activated her bucket-getting mode would have been the norm. Instead, Bird will be remembered as one of the last of her breed.<\/p>\n
Will there be another Syl?<\/p>\n
Sylvia Fowles. Christina Merrion.<\/p>\n If point guards are expected to score more than ever in today\u2019s WNBA, traditional bigs are not. At least not most of them. And certainly not in the ways that Sylvia Fowles not only did\u2014but did in dominant fashion.<\/p>\n Increasingly few 6-foot-6 centers receive the ball on the block with permission to go work. The best centers must be more comfortable away from the basket, capable of possessing the ball, making the right pass and, most especially, hitting an open 3. The best teams in the league, from Fowles\u2019 former Minnesota Lynx to the Las Vegas Aces, feature a traditional big for only limited minutes. The New York Liberty have prioritized bigs with 3-point strokes, while the Atlanta Dream have tried to induce 3s from their bigs. And on the other end, rim protection is only the beginning of bigs\u2019 responsibilities, with the ability to navigate a spaced out floor becoming a near-equal expectation. In a down-sizing WNBA, teams aren\u2019t asking their bigs to leverage their size and strength advantages, but instead expand their skill set.<\/p>\n But, maybe that\u2019s just because so few bigs possess the combination of athleticism and skill to own the inside as Fowles did? While that\u2019s probably true, it\u2019s becoming less likely that the rare young bigs with Fowles-like potential will be encouraged to develop their games in the ways that Fowles did. Instead of refining their skills to show that size still matters, they\u2019ll be shooting 3s. One style is not necessarily superior; they\u2019re just different. And as a result, we\u2019ll remember how Fowles was built different.<\/p>\n Will there be another Maya?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n