Top Ten Power Forwards Of All Time
Well, as with other positions, I think it is important to outline what makes a great power forward before tackling a list ranking the best of all time. The power forward spot is much like the center spot, double-digit rebounding is expected, and solid defence to, but power forwards have to be more versatile on offence, a strong mid-range jumper isn’t a bonus, it is expected. Because the forward spot is required to score more, they must handle the ball more, so they should have better assist-to-turnover rations than centers. Unlike the point guard though, there isn’t such a tight definition as to what a forward needs to do, but since there are so many 20-10 forwards on the books, the things that set the great ones apart from the good ones, is their ability to be a great facilitator (making teammates better is always important), stellar defence, and championships. This means that individual stats aren’t the most important thing when compiling this list, if they were Bob Petite and Elgin Baylor would be at the top, and they aren’t (though they are both on the list).
Most current forwards in the league won’t be on the list because it is too early in their careers to really evaluate them (sorry Amare, Gooden and Bosh), but it is clear that this generation does have its share of great power forwards.
Honourable mentions: Dave Debusschere, Maurice Lucas, Kevin McHale, Dirk Nowitzki (who needs to win a couple titles if he ever wants to be more than Germany’s answer to Bird), Chris Webber (who would have been still been playing if it wasn’t for that knee injury), A.C. Green (the NBA’s iron man at 1,192 games straight), Michael Cage (a rebounding monsters), Horace and Harvey Grant (Horace got the rings, but Harvey was a 20/10 player himself) Otis Thorpe, Bill Cunningham (who I feel really bad leaving off this list, since like Barkley he was quite the rebounder at only 6-6 and was a great playmaker long before forwards were used as playmakers), Charles Oakley, Larry Nance (who was greatly underrated in an era that hosted many great forwards) and Larry Johnson (whose career was cut short by a back injury and who re-invented his game to stay in the league a few more years). There are tons more who I’d like to include, but the list would just be too long.
10. Willis Reed
I realize that Reed was a bit more of a center, but he did play forward as well, and was always undersized at center since he was only 6-9. His career was relatively short, but he did help lead New York to two NBA titles, and did what Ewing never could. His scoring average might not have been jaw-dropping, but his defence anchored what I think New York fans actually refer to as a “dynasty”. His defence was great, and his rebounding was solid and his post up game called enough attention to opposing defences that left space open for Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe and Dave Debusschere. A strong defensive presence, a solid post up game, an MVP award, two titles and that unforgettable finals appearance where he came back from a severe injury to play (albeit limited minutes) and help motivate his teammates to pull out a huge win that brought a title to New York. I’ll concede that Reed won’t appear on most people’s list, and there are a couple of people in the honourable mentions list that may be more worthy than Reed, but he added a great story to the NBA mythos and was the cornerstone of the Knicks only two titles. And he even helped Phil Jackson earn his first ring.
9. Dennis Rodman
Being a big fan of Rodman, I wish I could put him higher on this list, but though he is easily the best rebounder of his generation, Hayes, Baylor and Petite were all better rebounders and also better scorers. Rodman though was a unique player. In a time when there were far less possessions a game and team rebounding was the rule across the league, and had pushed the freakishly high rebounding averages of the 60’s and 70’s down, Rodman was the only player to pull down boards on a pace that was competitive with the numbers Russell, Petite, Baylor and Chamberlain put out there. His 18.7 boards a game, posted in the 91/92 season has not been matched since, almost 20 years later, and were the best rebounding numbers put up by an individual in 20 years, since Chamberlain’s 19.2 boards a game in ‘72. At the time, Jordan was stringing along an impressive scoring streak and most fans were too busy dropping their jaws about that and didn’t notice that Rodman was doing something that hadn’t been done in twenty years and in all likelihood would not be done again at all. He also strung together 7 straight rebounding titles, a feat nobody has ever accomplished before. Rebounding was not Rodman’s only talent though as before he blossomed into a rebounding king, he was already a defensive master. He won his first Defensive Player of the Year award in 1990, a season in which he came off the bench for much of the season, the only bench player to win the award. The next season, when he had a regular spot on in the starting rotation, Rodman won the award again. The only part of the game that Rodman seemed to miss was scoring, an aspect which seemed to be developing nicely for his first few seasons, but one which he seemed to completely abandon by his fifth season. He did have some talent in this respect though, his former coach Chuck Daley once said that Rodman was the best three-point shooter on the team, despite the fact he hardly took them during games. Part of this was due to the fact that he was a young player on a veteran team with lots of veteran scorers, so he took a diminished scoring role and focused on rebounding and defence. His limited offensive game is also in part due to the fact that he was relatively new to the game when he entered the NBA. Rodman had never even picked up a basketball in high school and was a walk-on in college and made the team during tryouts and was not even scouted. By the time he joined the Bulls Rodman really had no need to score, not with Jordan, Pippen and that Kukoc. So he continued to do what he did best, and added a wicked outlet pass, shades of Wes Unseld, that helped jumped Chicago’s fast break offence. His career may have been over shadowed by conflicts with officials, and personal problems and outbursts, but when he was on the court he knew that basketball was a team sport and like Russell took on certain responsibilities and depended on teammates to fulfill other duties. His five titles are proof of his ability to play within a team structure, despite his reputation to the contrary, and his ability to rebound was a special anomaly that was a treat for fans to see.
8. Elvin Hayes
When Wes Unseld won an NBA title with the Washington Bullets, he didn’t do it by himself. Elvin Hayes helped to bolster the front court at the power forward spot (and current Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak backed both all-stars up). You could call him a poor man’s Elgin Baylor, but even a poor man’s Elgin Baylor deserves a spot on this list. His first three seasons were statistically his best (all around 28 points per game and 16 or 17 rebounds to go along), but he was still getting over 20 and 10 when he and Wes Unseld lead the Bullets to back-to-back NBA finals appearances, both against the Seattle Supersonics. Each team came away with a title, but Elvin Hayes, who started his NBA career a little late at the age of 24, was still going strong in his mid-30’s. He might not have had the longevity of Karl Malone or Kareem, but few players did in that era. Still, Hayes played near a 20/10 level at 35. Unseld always gets a lot of credit for the Bullets lone title, and when it comes to old school power forwards, Baylor and Petite always get a lot of bids, which makes it easy to forget Elvin Hayes. He wasn’t the best passing forward (far from it), but he pulled down the boards and put up the points, and did so more than any forwards outside of Petite and Baylor. I’m not sure how he was on defence since I haven’t had the privilege of watching him play, nor have I heard much about his defensive prowess, so I can’t praise or rail Hayes in this respect, but I’m sure he held his own.
7. Charles Barkley
The round mound of rebound came into the league a little chubby and a little short for a power forward, but he eventually went on to win league MVP honours while playing for Phoenix. His career statistically looks much like Karl Malone’s, especially in their pique years, but there are two key differences between the two, one; Barkley never had a point guard like Stockton to work with for the majority of his career, and two; Barkley only measures up to 6-6, pretty short next to Malone’s 6-9 frame, and most other power forwards in the league at the time who measured as tall or taller than Malone. Barkley had to make up for his size in other ways, and he also had to make up for a lack of athleticisms, so like Bird, Barkley developed a high basketball IQ and a good long range jumper (though no power forward was a better shooter than Bird). Now, I’m not saying Barkley was as unathletic as Bird, because that just isn’t the case, but I think its clear he was lacking in that department when you compared him to some of the other forwards of his generation (Larry Nance, Karl Malone, Michael Cage, Xavier McDonald and Dennis Rodman to name a few). But Barkley understood the game better than most other people he shared the court with, and he had great field vision which helped to make him the best passing forward (outside of Bird) since Elgin Baylor. He was also the best rebounder in the league for a time, and probably the best rebounder under 6-7 in league history. His high basketball IQ also earned him plenty of scoring opportunities (see the Charles Barley suckers play as one of many examples), and though he lacked the fancy foot work in the post that made Malone and Olajuwon so impressive, he could still get himself deep in the post with his bump-and-grind routine, which I’m sure gave at least a couple of players a semi-erection more than once (and also inspired the NBA to come up with the “five-seconds-with-your-back-to-the-basket” rule. As a child Barkley was easily my favourite player (an admiration I had to defend constantly to friends), but as much as I might want to put him near the top of this list, I just can’t put him any higher than this. His conditioning wasn’t nearly as impressive as Malone and in turn he didn‘t have the longevity Malone had, his individual stats are not as impressive as Petite or Baylor’s, or even Bird for that matter, and he has no rings (though the officials clearly robbed him of one against the Bulls in ‘93).
6. Kevin Garnett
Had he not won a title last year, I wouldn’t put him on this list just yet, and depending how the next couple of years go in Boston, Garnett may very well push himself in the top five, and I’m sure there are fans out there who would put Garnett in the top five now, but it is clear that Garnett has accomplished enough in his career to earn a spot in the top ten at least. I was actually going to put Barkley ahead of Garnett and changed my mind at the last minute, because even though Barkley was clearly a better offensive player, and likely a better rebounder (though both are great on the boards and there is a tiny, if any, gap between the two of them in this respect), Garnett is a much better defender and that is something Barkley was utterly lacking. That, and Garnett’s offensive numbers, like Duncan’s, are low because Garnett and Duncan both command double teams in the post and are unselfish enough to realize that passing out of the double-team gets easy baskets for their team. That said, I think all one needs to do to understand what I’m saying is look at Garnett’s assist numbers: 6.0 in his finest season and 4.3 on his career. There are point guards who get less assists. Garnett is also a perennial member the NBA All-Defnesive first team. The numbers he puts up in the assist column, and the rebounding column, alongside of his defence and his offensive weapons (which include both great foot work in the post, and a strong mid range jumper), make Garnett too good not to include on this list, and though he hasn’t had much luck in the post season until his year first year with Boston, the first time he really did have a contender to play with he won it all, and the last time he had a great team, he took the T-Wolves to the conference finals where he lost out to Malone, Shaq, Kobe and Payton, so he was more than a little outgunned at the time. Garnett will be remembered for his defence, but his offence would be as impressive as Malone, Barkley and Bird if Garnett felt so inclined to scored 30 points a game, and his crisp passing skills should also be remembered.
5. Bob Petite
If it wasn’t for Bob Petite, Bill Russell and the Celtics may very well have pumped out ten straight titles. Petite and his St. Louis Hawks managed to squeak one out from Boston in ‘58 and it was no doubt partly thanks to Bobs 24+ points and 17+ rebounds. Like Cousy defined the point guard position, and Mikan defined the center position, Petite has been accredited by many with defining the power forward position, and if you look at his numbers, few (outside of Elgin Baylor) have put up numbers better than Petite. His influence on how the position is played is especially important considering that he was the first dominant power forward in the 24-shot clock era. To this day Baylor is the only forward who really put up better numbers than Petite, and though numbers don’t tell the whole story, his impressive stats, the role he played in defining his position, and his championship season that came during the Boston Celtics/Bill Russell era are a testament to his tremendous talent. And before Chamberlain entered the league, Petite was Russell’s biggest competition (the two met up in the finals 4 times).
4. Elgin Baylor
He might rightly deserve to be a little higher on the list, and one-on-one, he could probably take the guys above him on this list to the whole in his prime. But like Chamberlain, what is most impressive about Baylor is his individual statistics. And don’t think that means he was a ball hog, because Baylor knew how to pass the rock- 5.5 assists per game in his best season, and 4.3 on his career. He also had one of the most impressive statistical seasons in 61/62 when he put up 38.3 points a game and grabbed 18.6 rebounds a game as well. On his career the numbers are almost as impressive at 27.4 and 13.5 respectively. Like Chamberlain though, it wasn’t until he took on a smaller role that the titles came in, and it was Chamberlain that helped Baylor, and their fellow Laker Jerry West, finally bring a title to the Lakers.
3. Karl Malone
Karl Malone is arguably the greatest retired player who doesn’t have a ring (though his teammate Stockton is in that conversation as well). Malone’s talent is unquestionable and undeniable. When he came into the league he had a great post up game and was a solid rebounder. His phenomenal foot work in the post helped make him a 20/10 power forward, and unlike Barkley, who often relied on the “back-your-ass-up” routine to get deep in the paint, Malone would dance around defenders to get to the basket. As his career went on though, Malone developed an outstanding mid-range jumper, and was pretty good from anywhere inside the arc. His defence was also top notch, got 1.4 steals per game for his career, pretty good for a forward, and nearly 1 block a game to boot. In the post there were few who could get the better on him one-on-one, and his free-throw percentage improved steadily throughout his career, illustrating that even as a perennial all-star, Malone was always looking to improve his game. He was also one of the great passing forwards in the league who challenged the role of a typical power forward, and along with Charles Barkley set the tone for front court players like Chris Webber, Brad Miller and Anthony Mason, who all modelled their post up games after Malone and Barkley who focused on their ability to pass out of the double-team as much as they focused on their moves to the basket. Malone though gets a spot above Barkley because of his defence, and gets ahead of Baylor due to his incomparable longevity, which is due primarily to his conditioning, an aspect of his career which Malone took great pride in, and an aspect which made him the oldest player to average 20+ points a game. With 18 straight seasons of averaging 20+ points a game, and finishing second on the all-time scoring list, Malone has assured his spot among the leagues greatest power forwards.
2. Larry Bird
Yes, Bird was a card board cut out on defence, and one of the least athletic players in the HOF, but that didn’t stop Bird from being one of the greatest players to ever step on the hardwood. Bird had a high basketball IQ, and though that term is thrown around a lot, it is certainly true of Larry Bird. Larry Bird relied on his knowledge of where to go and how to box out, and how to anticipate a rebound to always get in the right position, allowing his ability to read the court to compensate for the fact that he couldn’t jump over a pancake, and still get enough rebounds to finish with a 10 per game career average. And despite being slow, and a weak one-on-one defender, Bird still compiled over 1500 career steals, because he knew how to watch the passing lanes and anticipate a pass (just see him pick of that inbounds pass in the closing seconds of that playoff game against Detroit). And of course there was his shooting ability. There were times on the court, primarily when he stepped behind the arc, that Bird played more like a small forward than a power forward, and that shot was smooth, but it wasn’t innate talent, Bird busted his ass off in the gym, launching shot after shot to make sure his release was smooth when it came to game time. That shot made Bird one of the best scorers in the league while he played, and helped Boston add three banners to their collection. But scoring, rebounding and steals weren’t all Bird could do, he was also the best passing power forward in the history of the league, putting up 7.6 assists a game in his best season, and outside of Magic was the guy closest to averaging a triple-double since Oscar Robertson. And enough can’t be said about how Bird, along with Magic, helped to make the sport mainstream. What was seen as a largely “black” sport in the 60’s and especially the 70’s, became a mainstream sport in the 80’s when Magic and Bird showed fans what the game was all about. Was Isaiah right when he claimed sports analysts wouldn’t be shouting Bird’s praises if he weren’t white? No, because there were lots of great white players in the NBA in the 80’s and 90’s that never got as much press as Magic and Jordan and even Thomas for the matter. What got Bird attention was the fact that he was so great in the clutch, that he worked so hard, and that he got his team to the finals more time than I can count, and help Boston hoist up 3 titles in his career. Black or white, Bird is deserving of a spot near the top of this list and is one of the ten best player in the history of the league.
1. Tim Duncan
Duncan’s 20/10 career averages are impressive, but they do seem meek compared to some others on the list, so why is he at the top of this list? Well his four rings and counting help a lot, and his defence certainly gives him a leg up on Larry Legend and Sir Charles, neither of whom was particularly outstanding on defence. But Duncan’s defence and rings aren’t the entire story for Duncan. Inside the arc, Duncan is one of the most consistent big men in league history, and his mid-range jumper, as good as it is, isn’t even as impressive as his foot work in the post, which though not as jaw-dropping as Olajuwon’s, is still the best example of footwork in the post that the NBA has to offer today. And what’s more, Duncan knows how to create offence for himself with his face to the basket, which few big men know how to do (Amare gets a nod for this as well). With all these weapons though, his scoring average is only 20 a game, nothing to write home about, so why do I have him a number one? Has he compiled an awe-inspiring number of assists? He has certainly handed out more than his share (career average of 3.3), but his numbers aren’t as high as Birds, or several others on this list. What is true though is that Duncan sets the tone for the rest of his team. He is perhaps the best facilitator in the league today (Nash may have one up on Duncan here), and even if he doesn’t get a lot of assists, his impact is huge on every play that is run when he is on the court, even when he doesn’t touch the ball. Even standing out on the wing, defences have to make sure two guys can run to him at all times, and his eagerness to move the ball to teammates has been taken up by his teammates, so when he gets double teamed in the post, and kicks it out to Parker, or Ginobili, they are just as eager to move the ball to Finley who is just as eager to move the ball out to Mason, or Bowen, and somewhere along the line the defence falls apart and somebody gets an open shot. Duncan won’t get the assist on plays like that, but anybody who has watched the Spurs play can see how great the ball movement is, and it all starts with Duncan (and Greg Popovic deserves some credit here to). He might not get the assist, but the play starts with him, and even when the play doesn’t start with him, the defence always has to play him tight and that opens the floor up for his teammates. He isn’t like LeBron, or Bryant, both of who really need to have their hands on the ball to make an impact, Duncan though encourages team play, and shows confidence in his teammates, and as a result late, first-round, and second-round picks like Ginobili, and Parker have become perennial all-stars, and bench warmers from lottery teams like Bowen and Mason have become important starters on championship calibre teams. Kobe started on a team that already had three all-stars (Eddie Jones, Nick VanExel and Shaq), and picked up more every year (Isaiah Rider, Mitch Richmond, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Robert Horry, ect…) and when Shaq got traded, even a great all-around player like Odom was not enough, Kobe needed Gasol to. I think we all know, with Bynum or even Kawmbe Brown, Jordon would have been competitive, Kobe though has not been able to make players better like Duncan has, and it is this ability to facilitate that has allowed Duncan to harness a team-first atmosphere in San Antonio and make the Spurs the most consistent contender in the last 12 years. There hasn’t been a season since Duncan joined the Spurs that they weren’t serious contenders for the NBA championship.