Bleacher Report puts Garnett ahead of Nowitzki in All-Time Power Forward Rankings
On Friday, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey named his Top 10 power forwards of all-time based on a handful of advanced metrics. From No. 10 down to No. 1, here is how the list unfolded: Dennis Rodman, Chris Webber, Elvin Hayes, Kevin McHale, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett.
Although that's an extremely impressive list, we believe a strong case can be made for Nowitzki to be ranked in front of Garnett for a couple of different reasons.
In head-to-head matchups all-time, Nowitzki holds a 23-17 winning record over Garnett, including a 3-0 sweep in the first round of the 2002 Western Conference Playoffs. Battling in the regular season is one thing, but that playoff series between Nowitzki and Garnett simply doesn't get talked about enough these days.
To say Nowitzki dominated in his lone head-to-head playoff series with Garnett would be an understatement. In the sweep, Nowitzki averaged 33.3 points and 15.7 rebounds on 52.6 percent from the field and a crazy-efficient 72.7 percent from deep. Garnett, on the other hand, averaged 24.0 points and 18.7 rebounds per game on just 42.9 percent from the field. In the Mavs' series-clinching win, Nowitzki put up 39 points and 17 rebounds while going 11-of-17 from the field.
Here's how Nowitzki and Garnett compare in overall playoff production:
| Player | Playoff Career PPG | Playoff Career RPG | Playoff Career APG | Playoff Career SPG | Playoff Career BPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dirk Nowitzki | 25.3 | 10.0 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
Kevin Garnett | 18.2 | 10.7 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 1.3 |
When it comes to championships, both Nowitzki and Garnett have one on their resumes. The difference? Nowitzki won his title with the team that drafted him, while also being the best player in the series, winning the 2011 NBA Finals MVP trophy. Garnett won his championship in 2008 after being traded to the Boston Celtics, while Paul Pierce took home the Finals MVP trophy.
Not to take anything away from Garnett's accomplishments, but in this particular debate, it should be noted that he won his title while being part of a "Big Three," with both Pierce and Ray Allen still being in their primes, while Nowitzki won his title by taking down the "Big Three" of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh without another superstar on the roster.
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Although Garnett was the better defender, as noted by his 12 All-Defensive Team selections and Defensive Player of the Year award in 2008, Nowitzki holds a twelve-to-nine lead in All-NBA Team selections, with both players being selected to All-NBA First Teams four times each.
Finally, Nowitzki's impressive longevity and dominant scoring ability should be enough to push him ahead of Garnett if the other reasons listed above aren't enough. Overall, Nowitzki finished as the No. 6 All-Time Leading Scorer in NBA history with a total of 31,560 points, whereas Garnett finished as the No. 17 All-Time Leading Scorer with a total of 26,071 points. If you did the math at home, that's a 5,489 point difference, despite Nowitzki and Garnett both playing 21 seasons in the league.
Nowitzki and Garnett were both amazing players, and both are most definitely going to be first-ballot Hall of Fame inductees. These two players have been linked in these kind of debates for a long time now, and that doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
With that said, we're going to respectfully disagree with our friends over at Bleacher Report and rank Nowitzki as the rightful No. 1 power forward of All-Time.
