OT: Greatest Power Forward Ever

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Greatest Power Forward Ever

  • Tim Duncan

    Votes: 47 56.6%

  • Karl Malone

    Votes: 21 25.3%

  • Kevin Garnett

    Votes: 2 2.4%

  • Charles Barkeley

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • Kevin McHale

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • Bob Pettit

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dirk Nowitzki

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Josh McRoberts

    Votes: 6 7.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    83
Stevenson

Stevenson

Old School
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
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Wilt was the winner yesterday, and who will be today's grand prize winner, Johnny? I like Karl Malone, but I bet Duncy wins.
 
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This pains me to ask, but was James Worthy a PF or a SF?
 
Tim Duncan, hands down.

Worthy was a SF.
 
Duncan definitely has been dominant and has the four rings to add to the argument. I think we've all seen what he can do and just how sound his basketball skills are. Very refined. Very effective.

However, you have to marvel a bit at just what Charles Barkley was able to do at just 6'6". The guy was an absolute beast and averaged at least 10 boards almost every single season he was playing, that includes his final year when he was playing well into his thirties. At one point the guy averaged 28 and 10 while playing for the Sixers and then later developed some range while with the Suns.

Remember him taking the ball from coast to coast for a dunk or layup? How many power forwards could just lower their heads and bulldoze their way 94 feet down the court for a scoring opportunity like that? I know he's not the sexiest pick for GOAT PF, but I'd like to throw his name into the mix.
 
Barkley. The guy was 6'5 and could do everything. I don't like him off the court, but on it, he was unstoppable.
 
I think a few names could be removed from the list and replaced with Bob McAdoo and Nate Thurmond.

My vote was between Timmy D and Malone (better scorer). But, Timmy plays better defense and has the rings to show.
 
Reep said:
I think a few names could be removed from the list and replaced with Bob McAdoo and Nate Thurmond.

My vote was between Timmy D and Malone (better scorer). But, Timmy plays better defense and has the rings to show.
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Wasn't Nate Thurmond a center? I'm way too young to know first hand but as a Warriors fan everything I've seen/read about him made me think he played C (at least he did for the W's).

I voted for Tim Duncan.
 
Duncan. Barkley and Malone were better offensively, but he's been such a dominant defender. It's like comparing MJ to Dominique Wilkins. They all put up an insane number of points, but the titles went to the guy who was arguably the best defender ever at his position.

Such a shame that Garnett and Barkley squandered the best years of their careers on such bad teams. If you put Garnett on the Spurs in 1999, it's pretty easy to imagine we'd be talking about him as the greatest PF ever.

Barkley would never be considered the greatest at his position ever. When you look at the guys who are the very best at their positions, they were also good to great defenders. Sir Charles was never above ordinary.
 
I'm surprised the poll is so lopsided in favor of Duncan. Seems like just a few years ago Malone would be winning this by about 60%. But then it's pretty hard to argue with all those rings.
 
Run BJM said:
Wasn't Nate Thurmond a center? I'm way too young to know first hand but as a Warriors fan everything I've seen/read about him made me think he played C (at least he did for the W's).

I voted for Tim Duncan.
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He is listed as a F/C, but I didn't see him play.
 
BengalDuck said:
Duncan has been a C for most of his career.
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Not true. He has been listed as a PF for all of his career.

He is an all-star PF, not C. He is voted in every year as a PF. One year the NBA tried to put his ballot in as a C and he freaked out and said "no, I am a PF!"

He has made 11 All-NBA teams, as a PF. Not a center.

Anyhow, I voted Duncan.
 
HispanicCausinPanic said:
Barkley. The guy was 6'5 and could do everything. I don't like him off the court, but on it, he was unstoppable.
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Barkley was not a good defender. Malone was not a good defender. Tim Duncan is a championship caliber anchor defender.
 
HispanicCausinPanic said:
Barkley. The guy was 6'5 and could do everything. I don't like him off the court, but on it, he was unstoppable.
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It's between Barkley and Malone for me. For the same reason as you, Barkley was so impressive because he got so much out of seemingly so little. Had Malone won a ring, or two, he would be the easy choice for me. I just flat out am not a huge fan of Duncan's. Malone in his prime vs Duncan in his prime? Tough, IMO. I'm going with Malone.
 
Tim Duncan is the best power forward of all time.

He isn't all that flashy and he doesn't talk a good game, so he is under appreciated to some degree.

Both Barkley and C-Webb have said he was the best ever. I would agree.
 
I would probably put Kevin McHale 2nd over Barkley and Malone anyhow. It's been a long time, but folks either don't remember how good he was, or they weren't alive to see it.
 
Tyler_Hansbrough said:
Not true. He has been listed as a PF for all of his career.

He is an all-star PF, not C. He is voted in every year as a PF. One year the NBA tried to put his ballot in as a C and he freaked out and said "no, I am a PF!"

He has made 11 All-NBA teams, as a PF. Not a center.

Anyhow, I voted Duncan.
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More than anyone other than maybe Garnett, I think Duncan really blurred the line.

If a young Hakeem were drafted by the Spurs instead of Duncan, we'd probably be talking about The Dream as the greatest PF of all time. He was really only about 6'10, and started his career at PF next to Sampson. Houston just never had somebody else who could man the center position after Sampson left, and Hakeem had no problem guarding guys like Shaq. (Unlike Duncan.)

I think a lot of what we call the center position now has been defined by Shaq. If you had a guy like Garnett or Duncan or whoever on your team, you knew that guy was going to foul out trying to guard Shaq. So you got yourself a series of really big stiffs to put beside your elite big man, and you told the elite big man he was a PF and only put him on Shaq in specific situations.

The interesting thing is now we're kind of going back to the good old days. Amare is listed at Center. Howard is a center. If Shaq were still in his prime, I think those two guys are suddenly power forwards on the All Star ballot.
 
hasoos said:
I would probably put Kevin McHale 2nd over Barkley and Malone anyhow. It's been a long time, but folks either don't remember how good he was, or they weren't alive to see it.
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He is hard to place in that group because he was surrounded by so much talent. He wasn't a great rebounder; was an efficient, but not volume scorer . . . I sure like watching him play though.
 
OK, here's the case for Malone: He is what a PF should be - strong, able to score, able to rebound. He could pick and roll or pick and pop. 2nd greatest scorer ever. A rock. Rarely was hurt. Dedicated. Hard worker. 14-time All-Star, a 2-time MVP, 14-time All-NBA player, 2nd most minutes in league history.

"Every play, every rebound," said James Worthy, "you are going to have to go harder than you would go against anybody else in the league."

Duncan just seems a tad softer to me, great of course, but a PF is supposed to be a stud. Malone looks and plays like what you would want from a prototypical power forward.

a_malone_i.jpg
 
Damn those are some serious guns.
 
Malone had more attitude, and that chiseled physique combined with a ruthless pair of elbows meant that nobody, ever, was going to call The Mailman "soft." I'd say Duncan was just as relentless, but he just had different physical tools at his disposal (more height and athleticism, non-existent biceps).

Woody Allen and Bruce Willis have both probably been laid by a similar number of incredibly hot women. One guy just looks it more than the other.

In my analogy, Malone is Willis and Allen is Duncan.
 
I think Malone and Duncan are very close. Malone was the better scorer, they were similarly good rebounders. Duncan was a superior team defender, but Malone may have actually been the better individual defender. He was much harder to move in the post.

Malone had an absurdly long prime and productive career. He played 19 seasons productively, 16-17 of them at essentially star-level. Duncan has played 12 years, at star-level. I consider their peaks and primes to be relatively equal and give Malone the edge on career value, for now. Duncan may match that career value...he's still going quite strong, though he may be starting to break down.
 
KG! Best overall big man ever, Duncan gets the nod as best PF with all the rings and whatnot, but if we are going most skilled, gotta be kg
 
Tim Duncan is NOT better than Malone and I loathe Malone. Don't bring up the rings crap either, Duncan doesn't get any in that era anyways. Not to mention Duncan had much better talent around him..look back on those late 90's Jazz teams, they sucked outside of Malone. Stockton was declining, Horny was still a sharp shooter, but Antione Carr, Greg Ostertag, Shandon Anderson, Bryon Russell, Howard Eisley, are you kidding me?
 
MAS RipCity said:
Tim Duncan is NOT better than Malone and I loathe Malone. Don't bring up the rings crap either, Duncan doesn't get any in that era anyways. Not to mention Duncan had much better talent around him..look back on those late 90's Jazz teams, they sucked outside of Malone. Stockton was declining, Horny was still a sharp shooter, but Antione Carr, Greg Ostertag, Shandon Anderson, Bryon Russell, Howard Eisley, are you kidding me?
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and he didn't win, what's your point? look at all the crap around kg, doesn't mean he is a winner because they went to the playoffs 8 straight times. Your argument makes little sense. I think bringing championships into the equation is a little unfair anyway. Wade has 1 ring, that doesn't instantly make him better than other elite guards without one. It just says that he AND his team stepped up. Guys like KG and barkley never had that chance (until KG got traded anyway), so i would argue that malone isn't as good because he was there so many times and didn't win while Duncan and his team made the most of their chances.
 
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