NBA Player Rankings – Small Forward

Last week I posted “NBA Player Rankings – Shooting Guard”, now we move to ranking the small forward position.

These are subjective rankings, meaning that although I considered statistics, the final rankings are based on my personal thoughts and feelings on each player. I ranked each player based on the position they actually play for their team, and considered each players’ impact this year and going forward. The things I considered in developing my rankings are: skills/accomplishments, age, stage of career, future potential.

1. Lebron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Paul Pierce
5. Danny Granger
6. Andre Igoudala
7. Caron Butler
8. Hedo Turkoglu
9. Trevor Ariza
10. Rashard Lewis
11. Shawn Marion
12. Tayshaun Prince
13. Andre Kirilenko
14. Rudy Gay
15. Ron Artest


Just missed the list: Michael Beasley, Richard Jefferson, Luol Deng, Gerald Wallace, Josh Howard, James Posey, Marvin Williams

It was tough for me to put KD in the #2 spot after picking him to win the scoring title and MVP this year, but I hope it’s not long before everyone ranks KD ahead of Lebron.

The next one I had trouble with was The Matrix, who I think is up too high on this list. He hasn’t done much in the past couple years, but he might have a resurgence playing with J-Kidd in Dallas this year.

I always think of small forward as the best position as far as athleticism and scoring, and it is stacked up in the top 8-9 of this list, but the lower players on this list are much less impressive. I don’t think anyone ranked 9-15 could be the second best player on a championship team, but could be third fiddle.

Really tough to leave Beasley out of the top 15, and I see him quickly jumping back in. But with the tough off-season, I’m not sure what to expect this season. This position is very deep as far as good players, so there are a bunch of “just missed the list guys.” I could easily see Beasley, Deng or Marvin Williams jumping up this list with a good season. Obviously I’m really hoping that Deng comes back to his form of 3 years ago, when he was widely considered a lock to be a future all-star.





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