Power Forward Rankings: 2024
Tiering out the landscape of 50 NBA Power Forwards
What is a Power Forward?
The Power Forward position is more about what it’s not rather than what it is. The Power Forward of decades prior is dead — nowadays it often distinguishes itself in one of two ways:
1 - The smaller, more mobile, skilled, versatile 2nd Center position
2 - The bigger and stronger, less skilled, less mobile, 2nd Wing position.
In this case, “skill” refers to a player’s ability to shoot the ball and create offense off the dribble. As always, this is more of a role player guideline, since stars always transcend what is expected from any given position.
I’d wager most players on this list can either slide down to SF or up to C in a pinch, but I hope most are recognized as primary PFs.
As always, statistical profiles below are measured Per 75 Possessions — and players are not ranked within their respective tiers.
Tier 10: End of Rotation
Ranks 46-51
Taurean Prince
Christian Wood
Jabari Walker
Jae’Sean Tate
Jeff Green
Jarred Vanderbilt
Mostly replacement-level players in this group. They’d make a fine 10th or 11th man in a typical rotation — but would likely have a market at the minimum as hypothetical Free Agents today.
Tier 9: Regular Season Rotation
Ranks 37-45
Royce O’Neale
Jeremy Sochan
Dean Wade
Kenrich Williams
Peyton Watson
Trey Lyles
Kevin Love
Toumani Comara
Chris Boucher
You still probably wouldn’t be stoked about relying on this group in a playoff rotation — but they’re all serviceable rotation pieces as maybe the 9th or 10th guy in a regular season rotation.
Most players listed up to this point have serious health concerns or limitations on either side of the ball.
Tier 8: Reserves
Ranks 29-36
Kyle Anderson
Dorian Finney-Smith
Haywood Highsmith
Patrick Williams
Nikola Jovic
Nicolas Batum
Tari Eason
GG Jackson
This tier includes some higher-level shooting and defensive upside—both highly desirable traits among rotation players.
Chicago and Miami have high hopes for Nikola Jovic and Patrick Williams as potential tertiary creators — but they’re certainly not at that level yet. I’m personally excited to see GG Jackson with a real role on a real team this season. He’d be my pick to fly up this list one day.
Tier 7: Key Reserves
Ranks 22-28
Harrison Barnes
Tobias Harris
Jonathan Isaac
Rui Hachimura
Grant Williams
Obi Toppin
Bojan Bogdanovic
Despite falling into a range of Top 25 at the position, I still wouldn’t view this group as starter-level. They’re an ideal third wing/forward in the rotation — but don’t quite connect on both sides of the ball enough to be a desirable 5th starter/closer.
Tier 6: Starters
Ranks 17-21
PJ Washington
Jabari Smith Jr
Cameron Johnson
Miles Bridges
John Collins
My gap between Tiers 6-7 is smaller than any other tier on this list. I could be convinced that none of these guys are clearly better than the group below — but having a tier of 12+ players felt dirty.
I’m a big fan of Jabari Smith Jr and would go to bat for him at the top of this tier—maybe that’s indicative that he should jump a tier?
These were the hardest two tiers (for me) to distinguish. Let me know how you’d jumble them around if you have an opinion!
Tier 5: Starter-Closers
Ranks 11-16
Jerami Grant
Aaron Gordon
Draymond Green
Jalen Johnson
Jonathan Kuminga
Kyle Kuzma
This tier marks the point where all players at this level or better can expect to start and close games barring a bizarre set of circumstances.
Tough to acquire a generically good do-it-all wing. All 30 teams want one, but I’ve only identified a maximum of 16 in this list.
Tier 4: Sub-All-Star
Rank 10
Franz Wagner
Tier 4 is a quick pit stop before the All-Star group. Wagner, to me, is clearly above the regular starter-closer group — but is also a mini leap away from All-Star status or contention like the next group.
Do I really think Franz is a PF, or did I simply forget him on my SF list? The world may never know.
Tier 3: All-Star Caliber
Ranks 4-9
Scottie Barnes
Paolo Banchero
Pascal Siakam
Jaren Jackson Jr
Karl-Anthony Towns
Julius Randle
The All-Star tier introduces the ability of halfcourt shot creation—the single most coveted and valuable skill in basketball.
Jaren doesn’t quite fit this mould — he was also miscast as a primary option on a brutally injured Grizzlies roster last year — but he’s a one-man wrecking crew on the weak side defensively, and good enough of a shooter at PF/C to be in this All-Star mix.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Towns a reliable creator either — but there’s just enough there paired with the self-proclaimed greatest big man shooting ever to be in the All-Star mix.
Tier 2: Significantly worse than Giannis
Ranks 2-3
Lauri Markkanen
Zion Williamson
Tier 1: Superstar
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis is a Top 3 player in the world — and the best at his position by a wide margin.
I love Lauri Markkanen. He doesn’t have the upside of guys like Paolo Banchero and Scottie Barnes, but his skill set makes him perhaps the single most desirable 2nd or 3rd star in the entire NBA. There’s no other player who scores as efficiently as Markkanen off the ball at all three levels.
Zion always feels like a shotty pick no matter where you rank him. He missed more than half of his first four years in the league before finally reaching 70 games in year five. However, both his scoring and general impact metrics were significantly down compared to prior seasons. Maybe it’s due to the increased games played. Maybe it’s due to suboptimal team building. Regardless, I still believe he has All-NBA upside, and am comfortable putting him above the All-Star tier.
My other 2024 Position Rankings: