National Basketball Association

New era of power forwards ruling NBA

Published May. 5, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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No less of an authority than Kevin Durant anointed Zach Randolph the top power forward in the NBA after Memphis’ emerging star blitzed Oklahoma City in the opener of their conference semifinal series.

Fans of Dirk Nowitzki and backers of Pau Gasol can argue with Durant’s claim, but there is no question that Randolph has come a long way from his Portland days.

Just as the power forward position has come a long way, morphing into one of the NBA’s most important positions in today’s game.

Take a look at the eight remaining playoff teams and they’ve all got formidable players manning the position: Nowitzki is the closest thing we have in the NBA to an unguardable player. Gasol has had his struggles in this playoff season, but no one can begrudge his overall track record since arriving from Memphis to be Kobe Bryant’s top sidekick. In the other West semifinal, Randolph has been battling Serge Ibaka, one of the game’s top young board men and shot-blockers.

In the East, the Boston-Miami series features one of the members of the old guard, the mercurial Kevin Garnett, against Chris Bosh, who has settled into his role as the top No. 3 option in the history of the sport. Then there is Atlanta’s double-headed power forward, Josh Smith and Al Horford — one an athletic game-changer and the other a more conventional “four” and the heart and soul of the Hawks. They’re going against Carlos Boozer, who scored one of the largest contracts last summer because he’s usually good for close to 20 points and 10 rebounds a night.

For all the hype about point guards being the most important players in the NBA these days, the power forwards are almost as essential to their team’s success.

But that’s not how it used to be.

“They used to be the enforcers, guys like Charles Oakley and the big board guys like Buck Williams,” said Rick Sund, Atlanta’s GM who has been an executive for the past 35 seasons with a handful of teams. “Back in the day, the Lakers had guys like Kurt Rambis and A.C. Green manning the position for their Showtime teams. They banged, worked the glass and didn’t do much offensively.”

They didn’t have to, because the Lakers had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to provide scoring punch with his illustrious skyhook. With the exception of Kevin McHale, power forwards back in the golden ’80s were mainly non-scoring big brutes. But that started to change in the late ’80s and ’90s as Detroit and Chicago won titles without dominant scoring centers. Nobody would ever confuse Bill Laimbeer or Horace Grant with today’s scorers at the position. In their cases, they were giving their teams half the points that Nowitzki and the Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire provide now as top options.

Anyone who remembers Oakley’s rough and tumble play under the glass for the Knicks of the ’90s knows the changes at the position all too well. He was Patrick Ewing’s bodyguard, as Ewing was a fixture in the top 10 in scoring. Oakley was never the Knicks’ No. 2 scoring option and had what was considered a great night on offense when he’d make four or five open jumpers — he was left open because opponents regularly sent double-teams Ewing’s way.

True, among Oakley’s peers was Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, but they were rarities at the position. Twenty years ago, when the Mailman and Barkley were among the game’s top scorers, that was it for power forwards. This past season, 10 power forwards ranked in the top 25 in scoring, led by Stoudemire’s 25.3 ppg. In Oakley’s best season he averaged a measly 13.1 ppg.

Even in this last decade, the Lakers and Heat won titles with Shaquille O’Neal and could get away with having non-scoring power forwards. But the Spurs reached the pinnacle with Tim Duncan, one of the top power forwards in the history of the game. His playoff scoring average for the four title runs was 24 points per game — tops on the team — as the Spurs always ran their offense through him.

“Now, we’ve got guys who play the position who are big-time scorers,” Sund continued. “I mean, Nowitzki competes in the three-point shooting contest all the time. That’s how much the position has changed. But it’s a unique position, with guys with different styles and guys with different sizes and different skill sets. So when you ask, what is the prototypical power forward today, you have to say, 'It’s not one kind of player.' But it’s such an important position, your success in the playoffs could well depend on whether you can match up with the other team’s power forward.”

So who’s the best power forward still playing in these playoffs? Here’s how we rank them:

1. Nowitzki. As the Mavs have shocked everyone by taking a 2-0 lead over the Lakers, he continues to be considered the standard bearer at the position, despite being four years removed from his MVP season and as much of a liability as ever at the defensive end. The reasons? He continues to be able to carry the Mavs as their top scoring option, including his 24-point effort in Game 2. A lock to make the Hall of Fame, he’s still almost unguardable, even closing in on his 33rd birthday next month.

“Dirk is as big as a center,” Barkley said during the Mavs’ Game 1 win over the Lakers. “He plays power forward. He shoots like a two-guard. He dribbles like a point guard. At this stage in his career, Dirk Nowitzki is the best player in this series. Kobe Bryant is the sixth greatest basketball player on my list. But at his age and Dirk Nowitzki being in his prime, Dirk is the best player in this series. The Mavericks are going to win the series because they’ve got a great closer in Dirk. No one can guard Dirk on that Laker team.”

2. Randolph. Sorry, Z-Bo. Durant was wrong. But will No. 2 do? Probably. After years of being considered merely a great stat player who didn’t care about winning, Randolph has emerged in these playoffs as a winning player. When the Grizzlies needed someone to get them out of the first round against the heavily favored, top-seeded Spurs, Z-Bo put them on his broad shoulders, scoring 13 points in the final four minutes of the clincher. That’s why he’s risen in the ranks. With an array of moves and an assortment of conventional and unconventional shots down low — and a big backside to hold the position he needs — he’s now a force.

“He’s always been very good, but he’s become the best post-up player of all the power forwards,” said one Eastern Conference scout. “And he’s a very underrated passer. He can make plays for other guys. But the thing is that he dispelled this notion that you can’t win with him. He’s the reason the Grizzlies got to the second round.”

3. Gasol. Another member of the so-called old guard. He’s slipped to No. 3 this postseason because he’s been looking old and worn down, especially in Game 2 of the Laker series when Phil Jackson noted that his team failed to match Dallas’ high energy. Gasol was booed in Wednesday’s loss, showing how much L.A.’s faithful have turned on him. Going into this spring, the Lakers had won 11 of 12 series since he came from Memphis. He has a high basketball IQ and can score with his back to the basket or facing the basket. But Barkley is right. In this case, Gasol has struggled to guard Nowitzki, as he did at the end of Game 1 when he was caught too far from the basket and committed a costly foul on Dirk that helped Dallas win.

Last season during the playoffs, he averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds on 53 percent shooting, including his monster performance in the Game 7 win over the Celtics when he had 19 points and 18 rebounds. This season, he's averaging 14 points and eight rebounds on 43 percent shooting.

4. Garnett. He’s had a shaky series so far against the Heat, but certainly no worse than Paul Pierce or Ray Allen. Garnett is still one of the game’s great competitors. He turns 35 in two weeks and has slowed down because this is his 16th season. But he can still make big plays — his end-of-game slam dunk against the Knicks in Game 1 changed the first-round series — and his leadership is unquestioned. The one-time MVP has turned out to be a greater player in his four seasons with Pierce and Allen than he was in Minnesota, as he has not been asked to shoulder the entire load, as he was with the Timberwolves.

5. Horford. Atlanta’s center also sees a lot of time at power forward, and that’s what he is considered by many scouts and GMs. He’s more of an old-school power forward, a rebounder and grunt guy who has developed a solid offensive game since arriving in the league four seasons ago. He’s not a big-time scorer, but has improved his shot to the point where the Hawks consider him one of their best scoring options in fourth quarters. He’s got 18-foot range now, plays hard every game and is one of those players that 29 other teams would love to have on their side.

6. Bosh. He’s gotten the better of Garnett, especially in the Heat’s Game 2 win when he had 17 points and 11 rebounds. He’s more of a small forward, but like Garnett, he seems to fit in better as a third option than a lead player, as he was when he spent his first seven seasons in Toronto. Instead of being panned these days as a player who can’t lead his team out of the first round, he’s settled into his role and now is hailed as a good scorer and good rebounder. His playoff stats for this spring (17.6 ppg and 9.7 rebounds per game) and Miami’s 6-1 record bear that out.

7. Boozer. He was expected to be Derrick Rose’s wingman after arriving from Utah, but has made little impact in the Bulls’ seven playoff tilts. Like Gasol, he’s hearing boos from the home crowd these days. He’s suffering from turf toe against the Hawks and has looked like a shell of himself. So once again, injuries have dropped him in the eyes of the experts, while some GMs have noted with some alarm that he’s taken a big step back after signing his $85 million contract last summer. When he’s been healthy, he’s considered more of a standard power forward, a 20-10 guy.

8. Smith. He’s at the top of the list of the “game-changers” — freakishly athletic players who can jump out of an arena and get a key dunk, block or rebound to impact the outcome of the game. He tends to fall in love with the three-point shot and is a handful to coach. But he’s got a unique skill set. “If I had to have a power forward guard a guy like Nowitzki, I’d pick Smith over a guy like Zach Randoph,” said one Eastern Conference GM. “Athletically, Smith could give Nowitzki all kinds of problems.”

9. Ibaka. The Thunder has itself a rising impact player, another one of those athletic game-changers, in this second-year native of the Congo. Ibaka has been a revelation in the playoffs. He’s given Scott Brooks 10.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per outing — he’s raised his rebounds by almost three per game and his blocks by two while playing an extra five minutes per game. Ibaka is one of the reasons that the Thunder are seen as a viable challenger in the West for the first time.

Mitch Lawrence covers the NBA for the New York Daily News.