I still love Mchale's shot blocking and overall defense. But Dirk's ability to play away from the hoop may lift him up into the top five poward forwards ever. Duncan, Malone, KG and Barkley. With Pettit, McHale and the Big E just looking in. Barely.

In Response to Dirk or McHale all time at Power Forward?:
sorry but dirk is ahead of kg now that he has a ring. clearly miles ahead of karl malone AND barkely. will go along  pettit and hayes and DUNCAN. ahead of dirk, will be ONLY duncan right now. prob with mchale is like with pippen, ultimately he was the man behind the man, never was the MAN. must deduct points from his legacy. dirk has been the man for 13 years! dirk is ONLY behind duncan. ahead of mchale now although kev won 3 rings. larry bird is still ahead of dirk for he was the man in charge and got 3. dirk will have to win atleast one more before he could be better than or close to larry. now purely on skills and body type, mchale was BETTER than all of them at his peak, except for duncan. 

Dirk is great offensive machine... basically unstoppable from anywhere on the court. From a strictly scoring perspective and scoring skills, couldnt put any PF ahead of him.

As an overall player, Dirk stays behind Barkley, Duncan and KG. 

Dirk not on the same planet as Duncan, KG & McHale defensively....  and Barkley, as an overall player still better than Dirk imo.

As time goes by, memories fade about players. Barkley was a small forward but playerd like 6'10".. He did it all!! rebound, ball handle, run the break, had an overall offensive game...a real superstar.

My feeling is Dirk has rounded out his offensive game from a few years ago. He now drives more frequently, uses either hand to finish, drives to either side of the hoop... adding that to his typical outside game that hes played most of his career and hes become a real monster offensively.  However, thats only happened in the past few years... KG, McHale, Barkley, Duncan have done it most of their careers, for a much longer stretch than Dirk.

I love watching Dirk play but I cant put him above Duncan, Bark or KG..  McHale & Malone ...hard to say.

REBOUNDING

INTERIOR DEFENSE

SHOT BLOCKING

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Garnett and McHale are still ahead of Dirk.  Dirk's a great shooter, but he's only a serviceable rebounder and he's not a defensive presence at all.  He's also very mediocre athletically.

Dirk ahead of Barkley, Malone, and Garnett?  You can't be serious.  Dirk is a very good player.  He is not great player.  Very good on the offensive end, no where near very good on defense, or rebounds.

Agree with Karl lost.  Dirk is an offensive monster....still not sure he's better than Mchale in that category but most can't remember that McHale scored over 50 points in a game, had a jumper, and was unstoppable down low unlike Dirk.  But, the real issue is that McHale's rebounding and defense was far superior to Dirk, as was Duncan, KG, and Malone.  Barkeley had the speed and athletic ability to outplay Dirk in other areas.

defensively, dirk is worse than barkley kg duncan and mc hale
offensively they're different, no comparison except on ppg
overall as players i think dirk is behind those 4 ones

KARL MALONE!

All time greatest power forward: Duncan.  Only ahead of McHale
because McHale hobbled by injury late in career.  Irk Nowitski
nowhere near these two because he never has and still doesn't play
good defense.

Karl Malone
Tim Duncan
Kevin McHale
Dirk
Elgin Baylor

Oh the power of NOW!!!  Everytime any athlete does anything good are we required to start in the with "best of all time discussion"?

 Dirk is great, he helped his team win a title.  Case closed.

Dirk overall talents put him in the top 3-5 most talented ever list very few players ever have had had his skill set. As for best ever PF of all time he is up there. People who never saw Baylor or Hayes won't have a basis as to the level of their play. I think Dirk is better than Duncan,he just never had the team around him ie Manu and Parker. Talent wise he was better than McHale again the team around him. Dirk is better than the Mailman. Dirk and KG have different but great skill sets as well and both have SF too,but I gotta give the edge to the Dirkster there. So here is how I see it by ability

Getting your shot Dirk,Baylor,KG
Post moves McHale,Hayes,Duncan
Power moves Mailman,KG the rest
Rebounding. Duncan,KG,Mailman,McHale,Hayes,Dirk
Passing Duncan,Dirk,Hayes
Overall Defense KG,McHale,Duncan
Interior D KG,Hayes,Duncan/McHale
Offense 18 ft and out Dirk,Baylor
Ball handling Dirk,Baylor,KG
FTs Dirk,Dirk,Dirk
Whos best overall depends on your criteria. Though he split time as asf and pf James Worthy gotta get some props to especially at his height and build.Paul Silas too. For shear defensive and rebounding Rodman

Dirk really has a well balanced game now. He is the best offensive player of all players mentioned in this thread. But even as he has improved his defense (especially at the end of games) he is not as good as KG. On the other hand, KG is not nearly in Dirks class on offense and it is a fair comparison as KG is also a jump shooting PF. At the end of a game I would like to see Dirk with the ball in his hands over KG easily. Who is better now? Difficult IMO, depends on your team. Therefore you cannot rate players by just sort them from top to bottom. One just can put them on different levels.

Level one: MJ, Hakeem, etc.
Level two: Dirk, KG, Wade, etc.
Level three: Ray Allen, Pierce, etc.
Specialist: Rodman, Miller etc.

In Response to Dirk or McHale all time at Power Forward?:


Isnt it interesting how until these playoffs, Dirk was not even in the conversation nor should he have been. He is a very good player and he now has a ring.... end of story!!  KG in his prime would destroy Dirk on both ends of the court...as to the others, they are all still ahead of Dirk.

In Response to Re: Dirk or McHale all time at Power Forward?:


Very well said

Some of you guys are jumping on the Dirk Nowitzki band wagon. He's a great offensive player and a good defensive rebounder. He's a below average defender. He may have trouble being a top 10 all time power forward due to his below average defensive abilities. Remember, half of the game is spent on the defensive end of the court.

One thing in Dirks favor is his ability to carry his team down the stretch.

In these NBA finals, who has been more dominant than Dirk in the 4th qtr and finals minutes of all the close games played?

Dirk scoring 10 straight or 9 of 12 or w/e.  He was clutch and a pressure player....and he did it just about every game, with everyone on the HEat knowing the ball was coming his way and no other superstar the Heat had to concern themselves with.

Cant say this about KG.. or McHale or most of the others hes compared to at PF.

At the beginning of the finals, dirk was shooting 7-10 from three point in the fourth quarter. That is a staggering stat.

If the Dirkster wasn't in your conversation about best PFs before the finals,you probably don't watch anything but the Celtics,nothing wrong with that, because Dirk has been stellar his whole career.

In Response to Re: Dirk or McHale all time at Power Forward?:


Well, KG hasn't exactly set the world on fire for the Wolves. Dirk made an average cast of guys a TOP 4 team in the (during that time) dominant West for a decade now.
Dirks defense is not close to KGs, but he is not as bad some people suggest. What exactly did his opponents in the playoffs do for their teams?
On the other hand KG never could take over games on offense as Dirk does consistently.

P.S. Bird was not in KGs (or Pippens as they play on the similiar position) class as a defender as well. I still consider him as quite a player ;-)

Tough to go against Dirk right now ... lol he did just win a title. AAhhh ok here it goes , but i have im not sure on what your asking. Are you assuming its either Dirk or Mchale? if so , thats fine , just want to know where your coming from. Anyway it really depends on how you want to build your team. I mean if your asking who is a better player , thats also a really tough question. No doubt Kevin is a more complete player. Thats not even up for debate , Dirk was/is and will never be the D player Kevin was. Flip-side ... Kevin could never carry a team and be " the man " for a entire playoff run , let alone 10-15 years. What Dirk has put together is just amazing. Its funny how quick people change their mind or flip-flop ( C.C. ) when someone has a ring. LOL Now all those 50 win seasons , crazy #'s he put up for 10 years etc. look much better behind a ring. Kevin is more complete , while Dirk is more elite. LOL I kinda like that line. If your building a team around one player than you go with Dirk. If you already have a serious number option on the O end than you get Mchale. If i can say something here , i think who you beat matters ... a lot! Everyone here knows at least one loser ( C.C. ) that was either comparing 'Bron to MJ or saying he was already better. What i pointed out to this moron ( C.C. ) was that Jordan beat sooo many of the greatest players to ever play ... i guess C.C. is 15 y/o and didnt have the pleasure of watching some of the greatest basketball of all time. But anyone who knows anything about the game knows it was at its best between the mid-late 70's and mid-late 90's. Now we have a watered down product with few "real" superstars/ballers. The NBA gift wrapped that finals for the Heat , granted Dirk was treated special as well , but the Finals was all Heat in terms of 50/50 calls , how many flops/dives did the big 3 get away with??? The Heat as a team just gave that series away bigtime , they should have swept the Mavs. I said as soon as they got Bosh that he would be traded 2 years from the day. He absolutely killled their 4th qr O , he just disappears ... lol worse than Lebron. Then you have 'Bron playing hot potato with the ball in the 4th , just passing it to anyone he can find. Seriously iv never seen a " superstar " absolutely HIDE on the weak side like 'Bron 'Bron did. Lol then again ive never seen a " superstar " only score 18 combined! lol points in the 4th qr in 6 games.

In Response to Re: Dirk or McHale all time at Power Forward?:



Dirk is not better than Mchale or Karl Malone. People let's not fall in love with the "NOW". PF list is Duncan,K.G.,Mchale,Barkley,Malone, then Dirk .

People forget, McHale had a pretty good 3-pointer. Light years ahead of Dirk scoring against a double team in the post and playing defense.

Everybody listed played after 1980. There was an NBA before 1980. Some great power forwards played. Even 1 or 2 after 1980 were left out such as James Worthy. 
   A great power forward from the 70's was Wes Unseld. Wes played both the 4 and 5 positions during his career much like Tim Duncan. Bob Pettit was before my time. I know he was a forward, not sure if he was a 3 or a 4. Tommy Heinshon has frequently referred to Pettit as one of the best to ever play the game. Due to Dirk's lack of good defensive skills, he may barely crack into the top 10. By the way, I'd take Worthy over Dirk during their primes anyday.
My list. Malone, Duncan, K.G, McHale, Barkley, Unseld, Pettit, Worthy than Dirk.

James Worthy played small forward

Baylor was incedible he has to be on the top 10 list