2010 NBA Playoffs: Tim Duncan Leads Current All-Time Power Forwards

2010 was a strong year for power forwards, with three of my top 15 power forwards of all time still alive in the second round on the NBA Playoffs: Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Pau Gasol.

Which led me to wonder, how do they rank all time? Where do Rasheed Wallace, Amare Stoudemire, and Antawn Jamison land on the list?

This list was made by me, using a formula I created where I took each of these players' best season ever; added rebounds + assists(times 2) + steals (guessed on before 1972 player defense stats*) + blocks (*) -(minus) turnovers - (minus) personal fouls +total points/(divided by)minutes played. This gave me the top 180 stat producing per-minute performers ever.

Then, I made a list of title wins and Finals appearances, and listed the 180 by that. Then I added the numbers on each chart and divided by two and these were the results. This gives props to players’ best individual seasons plus their career success.

Yes, it took a while, but if this gets kids interested in awesome players of the past, then I'm glad. 

I'm 34 and remember some of the old school players, and yet I am the same age as Duncan, Jamison, and Pierce, and younger than Shaq, Fisher, and Nash. This is an unbiased comparison. Stats and wins speak for themselves. If you are not happy with it, you do the math. I did!

36. Ben Wallace

35. Clifford Robinson

34. Tom Gugliotta

33. Larry Johnson

32. Rasheed Wallace

31. Kevin Willis

30. Maurice Stokes

29. Antawn Jamison

28.Terry Cummings

27. Shawn Kemp

26. Larry Nance

25. Derrick Coleman

24. Dennis Rodman

23. Dolph Schayes

22. Dave DeBusschere

21. Chris Bosh

20. Amare Stoudemire

19. Tom Chambers.

18.  Wes Unseld was undersized but powerfully built. He won a title with Washington.

17.  Maurice Lucas helped big man Bill Walton win it all in 1977.

16.  Dirk Nowitzki has seen another early playoff exit in 2010, which is why he’s not ranked higher.

15.  Pau Gasol is the Lakers new MVP. With his size, defense, intelligence and experience, he should be Finals MVP if they win it all.

14.  Chris Webber wasn’t surrounded by championship type players but he was one. Physically and mentally he was amazing, but emotionally he was possibly a loose cannon.

13.  George McGinnis was an old school player who would school the new blood. He averaged 23.0 points, 12.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.6 steals per game in his first year in the NBA.

12.  Kevin McHale had a somewhat subdued career because he played with Bird and Parish. He was actually unstoppable in the low post and a great defender.

11.  Walt Bellamy put up astounding numbers in his career. He averaged 31.6 points and 16.0 rebs per game as a rookie in 1962!   

10.  Jerry Lucas averaged over 20 points and 20 rebounds per game, twice in his career, and won it all in 1973, with the Knicks.

9.  Elvin Hayes is the forgotten power forward. People neglect to mention how great he was. They forget that he scored 27,313 points in an NBA career that spanned 16 seasons and 1,303 regular season games and 96 playoff games. He also grabbed 16,279 rebounds. How could we overlook him, especially since he was an NBA champion in 1978?

8.  Spencer Haywood is another forgotten great who won an NBA title in 1980 with the Lakers and a rookie Magic Johnson. He averaged as high as 29.2 points per game one season and 12.9 rebounds per game in another.

7.  Dave Cowens is yet another power forward who was greater than most today. He won two titles in 1974 and 1976 with Boston averaging more than 20 points and 13 rebounds each time in those playoffs.

6.  Kevin Garnett is not as good as he used to be but when he was at the top of his game he was a rebounding champion, defensive player of the year and NBA MVP, oh yeah, he won a title in 2008, and could win one again in 2010.

5.  Bob McAdoo was an awesome force to deal with back in the day and with his overall skills he could dominate today too. He won three scoring titles averaging 30.6 pts, 34.5 pts and 31.1 pts in 1974, 1975, and 1976. He helped the Lakers win titles in 1982 and 1985.

4.  Karl Malone was the stereotypical, or should I say, prototypical power forward. He possessed every single skill needed to be great and was on defense and especially offense. The powerfully built man was somehow unable to take out Jordan and so went 0-2 in the finals vs. the Bulls and then in his last season in L.A. he somehow couldn’t help Gary Payton, Shaq, and Kobe win it all in 2004. Why? I will never know.

3.  Charles Barkley had the same problem as Malone, and couldn’t beat Jordan in the 1993 finals, but the things he did at only 6’6” were amazing. Pound-for-pound the greatest ever, but never won a title.

2.  Tim Duncan has won four championships since 1999, and may make it five this year, if they can get past the Suns in round two. The Big Fundamental has had some fantastic teammates to help him win it all, but he is an awesome team player.              

1.  Bob Pettit is the most underrated and forgotten power forward of all time, and he is the best ever, through my formula. He played 11 seasons and took his team (St. Louis Hawks) to four NBA Finals.

He was the only player to break the dynasty Celtics’ championship streak from 1957 to 1966. In 1958 his team beat the Celtics 4-2. He averaged 24.2 pts and 16.9 rebs in the playoffs that year. His career average is 26.4 points per game and 16.2 rebounds per game, along with 3.0 assists.

I truly do believe he would be just as good today.