NBA: Ranking all 30 starting power forwards for 2018-19

With time to kill before the 2018-19 NBA season, it’s time to rank all 30 projected starting power forwards for the upcoming campaign.

August is finally, mercifully, almost at an end. With the start of September comes Media Day, training camp and eventually, a few weeks later, the start of a new NBA season.

However, all that exciting activity is still a few weeks away, leaving us with time to kill before professional basketball is back in our lives. As we’ve done all week, we’re passing the time by ranking all 30 projected NBA starters by position for the upcoming season.

So far, we’ve gone through rankings for point guards, shooting guards and small forwards, so today we’ll be taking a look at the power forward position, which includes more small-ball 4s than ever before.

The obvious question is: What factors come into play with these rankings? Rather than come up with some complicated algorithm or choose one single advanced statistic to judge everyone by, these projections are based on stat lines from last year, a player’s impact on winning, team fit, opportunity, propensity for injury, defense and a myriad of other factors for the new campaign.

These evaluations aren’t based on fantasy projections or contract value; they’re simply based on a player’s projected on-court value to his respective team in 2018-19, with team success, individual numbers, efficiency, health and everything else factored in. These rankings are made looking ahead to the upcoming season, but using past seasons as guidance.

While starting lineups change based on injuries and players exceeding or falling short of expectations, we’ll be taking a look at the 30 players who should be expected to spend the majority of the season starting at the 4-spot. With that being said, let’s dive into our rankings for all 30 starting power forwards in 2018-19.