NBA 2018-19 Season: Top 10 Small Forwards Today

The small forward position is probably the most top-heavy conventional basketball position in the NBA today. The very best players in the world are predominantly 3s, and there's a pretty big chasm between the cream of the position and the mid-pack guys in terms of talent, skill and championship aspirations.

The gap between the #1 player and #10 players on the top 10 small forwards list is far greater than the gap at any other position, and that's no exaggeration.

Going into the 2018-19 season, we decided to rank the best small forwards in the league by default position. Read through to find out where the likes of Gordon Hayward, Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo land here:

---

#10 Otto Porter Jr

Pure box score statistics don't illustrate the variety of ways in which Otto Porter has grown ever since entering the league with a reputation as one of the best marksmen in college basketball. The 24-year-old is one of the best 3-and-D players in the league today, and he has consistently ranked among the top 10 shooters in the league by 3-point percentage, finishing 3rd across the NBA last season

The Georgetown product maintained his status averaged a career-high 14.7 points per game to go with 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.8 triples nightly. Given Washington's ball-dominant backcourt, Porter is just the perfect fit. There's no doubt that he's one of the better players across the league at what he does, despite having probably hit his peak already.

#9 Joe Ingles

In addition to entering the rich world of NBA memes midway through the 2017-18 season, Joe Ingles has always been one of the more underrated wings in the NBA. There’s not much more Ingles needs to prove. He’s one of the best outside shooters in the Association, excels on both ends of the floor in a wide variety of play types and defends stoutly - a player straight out of the best 2k player archetypes, really.

A variety of teams were Jingled through the course of the second half of the regular season this past year, as Ingles provided able support on both ends of the floor to the Jazz's high-flying duo of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

The Aussie is now entering his 5th season in the league. Aged 31 and armed with a game predicated more on skills than on athleticism or explosiveness, expect Ingles to be a major contributor for the Jazz for a number of years to come.

#8 Jayson Tatum

Booming LeBron James in the 4th quarter of the Game 7 of a Conference Finals series as a rookie? Check. Finishing as a top 10 3-point shooter across the league in his inaugural NBA go-around? Check. Leading the Boston Celtics in scoring against a promising Sixers squad in the absence of the two best scorers on the squad? You bet.

Tatum's stats from the regular season, or for that matter the playoffs, do not scream out superstar at you even by rookie standards. But then, that's the problem with statistics and people who use them as their primary basis for judging players, for Tatum is about twice as good as his stats show him already - all without an offseason under his belt.

On course to develop as one of the best isolation scorers in the game, Tatum will be the lone youngster on the Celtics' roster to continue to see similar minutes as he did last season in the playoffs for the length of the season. An All-Star berth this season is not that far-fetched a notion as it might seem.

#7 Khris Middleton

Middleton seems to have shed the 'underrated' tag following a barnstorming performance in the first round of the playoffs against the Boston Celtics. Recovering fully from a hamstring injury that held him to 29 games in 2016-17, Middleton averaged 20.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.8 three-pointers per game last season. He missed out on All-Star honors by a pretty narrow margin.

The Milwaukee Bucks swingman is a more than adept defender, can get buckets with the best of them and distributes well from his spot on the wing. With more exposure coming from a deeper playoff run, plus another year playing next to the Greek Freak, Middleton’s got the talent to become a nationally known entity in 2018-19.

Expect him to mirror his stats across the board this season playing in a much-improved system built by Mike Budenholzer.

#6 Gordon Hayward

It’s fair to wonder what type of impact Hayward will make in 2018-19, given the nature of the injury the former Jazz All-Star suffered just 5 minutes into his regular season debut for the Shamrock Greens. But he has done enough through the course of his career to merit a positive outlook for the upcoming season, and it's unlikely that he'll be anything less than a top 10 wing at worst this year.

The season before last, Gordon Hayward had the best year of his career and was clearly one of the top 5 or 6 swingmen in the NBA. The former Brad Stevens protege at Butler University averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 three-pointers per contest on 47.1/39.8/84.4 shooting splits, ranking Top 25 in both VORP and BPM.

Hayward is still not fit enough to play heavy minutes at the start of the season given how rusty he looked in preseason action, but health permitting, he will justify this ranking by the end of the season.

#5 Paul George

The Paul George trade has become a win-win for both the Indiana Pacers as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder following the swingman's decision to sign a 4-year deal with the franchise in the summer.

George continued his excellent play from his Pacers days through his first regular season campaign. With him in the lineup, the Thunder have an option other than Russell Westbrook who can be a viable playmaker and pure scorer. Averaging 21.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.5 blocks per game through the 2017-18 season, George has the ability to stuff the stat sheet like few other perimeter players.

He is also a stingy defender, with his impact backed up by advanced defensive metrics. He ranked second to Andre Roberson in defensive win shares per game within the Thunder franchise last season, and they are two points worse off in defensive rating with him off the floor.

#4 Kawhi Leonard

There’s a damn good chance Kawhi Leonard could wind up outplaying this ranking. In fact, on a personal level I'm betting on the Klaw to win either the MVP award or his 3rd Defensive Player of the Year title, or in fact, both trophies for the coming season.

I'm simply choosing to be conservative with his placement, mostly due to the fact he missed almost all of last season due to a sketchy thigh injury, because if this ranking had taken place last summer, Leonard would have probably finished third, maybe even second.

Two years ago, Leonard averaged 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.8 steals and 2.0 three-pointers per contest, shooting 48.5 percent from the floor, 38.0 percent from deep and 88.0 percent from the foul stripe.

On top of those eye-popping marks, Leonard also doubled as the league’s best perimeter defender, so meddlesome with opposition guards and forwards that teams routinely schemed to keep Kawhi's cover at the corner while running their offense in order to negate his effect on their pay.

Now a member of the only Canadian team out there, I expect Leonard to have a chip on his shoulder after what’s gone down over the past year. If that’s the case, and if the team is able to manage a clean bill of health, the 2014 Finals MVP could lead Toronto to heights they’ve never before reached and breaking the hegemony of the top two players on this list.

#3 Giannis Antetokounmpo

Is it really fair to categorize Giannis by position? We've seen him play the role of point center in the past, and while he's listed as a small forward, he really plays a lot of minutes at the 4 spot and sometimes runs the floor as the point guard on offense.

Giannis' freak of nature size, athleticism and agility make him one of the most devastating transition players ever to play in the NBA. In addition, he has a wealth of moves from the low post, his bread and butter scoring region. Giannis is also an adequate shooter from mid-range and he's a walking mismatch for any player on any NBA team today, impossible to be guarded by a single man and requiring the entire attention of opposition defenses.

Playing under a competent head coach in Mike Budenholzer for the first time in his career, expect Giannis to add refinements to his game and keep adding moves to his already sizeable repertoire. He is as good an MVP candidate as anyone this season.

#2 Kevin Durant

People over at ESPN may be okay with the blasphemousness of placing KD at the #4 spot among the best players of the upcoming NBA season; I'm definitely not buying it.

All it takes is one glance through any regular season game played by the Warriors to find the fingerprints of Durant's game all through the game, and what's so great about him during his stint in Oakland is that he's able to do it on both ends of the floor at elite levels.

A 7-foot small forward with the handles of a point guard and the quickness and length to hang with the league's best rim-runners as a small ball center in addition to being the best pure scorer in the game today. Man, are we really having this conversation?

Not only is Kevin Durant clearly the #2 player in the world, but he is also the Hakeem Olajuwon in an era which has LeBron James as its Michael Jordan. That's just how good a talent he is.

#1 LeBron James

Was there any doubt about this? LeBron James has been the preeminent player entity in the NBA for a long time now, and his move to the Lakers now empowers him in a manner that he wasn't during his spell in Cleveland - able to reach out to one of the biggest markets in the world as their daily source of entertainment.

LeBron is as Showtime as any of the Lakers legends who have been enshrined forever at the front of the Staples Center, and last year's playoffs were about as impressive a performance as we've ever seen The King put on for the world to see.

It will be interesting to see how long he holds on to his throne, for he is going to be 34 before the turn of the calendar year and clearly on the latter half of his peak. For what it's worth, the competition for the bragging rights of being the 'best player in the world' is now much closer than it was a couple of seasons back.

---

SK High Hoops - Write and win amazing prizes. Click here to know more!