NBA 2018-19 season: The top 10 power forwards today
Holla! Of late, we at Sportskeeda have put out ranking for the best point guards, shooting guards and small forwards in terms of expected impact during the 2018-19 season. While the title of this article reads 'Top 10 power forwards today', there's a couple of clarifications that I need to make clear before you take a deep dive into the article and look for the author in indignation:
(a) Anthony Davis will be the Pelicans' starting center this season. That much is clear from the preseason action that we've seen and the role he played during the playoffs last year. Therefore, he is disqualified from a list that he would easily have topped last season;
(b) Kristaps Porzingis is probably going to miss over 50 games this season. While he's arguably a lock for a top-two spot on this list based on his talent and his displays from the 2017-18 season pre-injury, we can't place an injured player on a list trying to gauge the impact of players in the upcoming season;
(c) Al Horford is a power forward, and that is where he's logged the majority of his minutes through the course of his 11-year career. But the Celtics will be starting Horford at the center role this season, as is obvious from the preseason action. This disqualifies him, like AD, from this list.
Without further ado, here's your list of top 10 power forwards today:
#10 Dario Saric
Dario Saric has blossomed into a versatile, do-it-all stretch 4 for the Philadelphia 76ers who is also one of the better secondary playmakers in the league. In his sophomore season, the Croatian big man put up 14.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists while connecting on 2.0 3-pointers per game. This he achieved on exemplary 45.3/39.3/86.0 shooting splits.
There was some concern about how Saric’s poor outside shooting as a rookie would affect the team’s offensive output when sharing the floor with Ben Simmons (a total non-shooter), but those worries were quelled with the improvements Saric made as a shooter over the 2017 offseason.
To go with his improved outside stroke, Saric continued his progression as a playmaker last season, although his lack of a quick first step may prevent him from ever being more than an average on-ball defender. But what he does provide to the Sixers even now is more than valuable for the franchise to make a deep playoff run this go-around.