In the new era of basketball, many leagues and teams have put a premium on guard play. The bruising, paint-protecting forwards and centers of old have become endangered. In their place, stretch forwards and centers have risen. Meanwhile, lineups have shrunken as fast-paced transition play has taken over. High octane guards have changed the fabric of the game.

While this paradigm shift occurs around the basketball universe, in the W the complete opposite is occurring. Dominate forwards have taken over the WNBA from the towering 6-8 Brittney Griner to the smaller – but no less effective – 6-2 Nneka Ogwumike. As a matter of fact, heading into the second half of the season, the top five scorers in the league are all 6-2 or taller. In addition, rising stars such as the Connecticut Sun’s Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas, whom were both named starters in their first ever All-Star game, are dominating in the front court. Jones was the star of the game, scoring 24 points to go along with 9 rebounds.

The pace of play has seemed to slow as these “bigs” play back to the basket and dispatch opponents with lethal combinations of drop steps, spin moves, and up-and-unders. For instance, Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles (the No. 2 and No. 4 scorers in the league respectively) were recently named the WNBA’s Players of the Week. In reviewing all of their plays from the past week, a glaring similarity is readily apparent: baskets in the paint. Neither player is shooting 3’s or crossing up opponents; rather they set themselves on the block, receive the inbound pass and get to work. This blue collar, grind it out, post play has come to characterize the league. This season, the leading scorer on each of the top six teams in the league is over 6-2. It is not until the seventh ranked team, the Dallas Wings, that Skylar Diggins-Smith bucks the trend with her 18.5 points per game. Furthermore, eight of the top-10 rebounders in the league this season are also top-20 scorers as well. Four of those top six rebounders (Fowles, Griner, Stewart and Charles) are the top four scorers in the W.

It is debatable whether the shift in play is a result of team strategy or the pervasiveness of talented forwards. It could be a combination of both. Regardless, focusing the offense through forwards has been a valuable strategy through the first half of the season and should continue to play a major role in the second half and playoffs.