Top 10 NBA Small Forwards Today

We rank the NBA’s top 10 small forwards right now, explain who’s eligible, and make tough calls on health, role, and impact. Kawhi leads the pack, Scottie and J-Dub surge, and we defend bold picks like Cooper Flagg and Deni Avdija with clear on-court logic.

• Criteria based on current form and availability
• No Tatum or Butler due to injury
• MPJ’s shooting gravity vs defensive concerns
• Wiggins’ scalable defense and playoff proof
• Franz’s balanced offense and decision-making
• Cooper Flagg’s tools and two-way ceiling
• Deni Avdija’s all-around leap and playmaking
• Brandon Ingram’s polished scoring and fit
• Jalen Johnson’s size, pace, and floor-raising
• Scottie Barnes’ strength, defense, and creation
• Jalen Williams’ switchability and efficiency
• Kawhi Leonard’s healthy dominance on both ends
• honorable mentions and position clarifications

Please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who’s anyone about the show

Transcript

Kickoff And Criteria

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, and as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Now, if you've been paying attention, we talked about the top 10 point guards and the top 10 shooting guards. So you know what's next. Top 10 small forwards. Maybe you didn't, but I just told you. So we got to talk about the top 10. I got some honorable mentions per usual. You know what I'm saying? And let's go ahead and bring up this list, does not include players like Jimmy Butler or Jason Tatum because they're injured right now. Now, to be clear, Jake, Jimmy Butler just got injured. You know what I'm saying? So, like, well, not just he's been injured for a little bit now. Jason Tatum, he's been injured. But he's coming back, but still, we don't know what he's gonna look like. So, right now, moment in time, those are the two main people that I'm not really factoring in. We are considering people who are on suspension. Hey, Paul George. But overall, top 10 small forwards. Let's get it popping. So, number 10. All right. I gotta be honest with you. I gotta go Michael Porter Jr., MPJ. You know what I'm saying? Off Brooklyn Nets. Listen, hear me out. A lot of people just thought Buddy was a score, a shooter, per se. And then, you know, it was a decent rebounder. No defense, limited playmaking. But to be fair, he had Jamal Murray and Nicola Yokick. I'm sorry, Nicola Jokic and Jamal Murray. You gotta say that in the opera. You gotta do the order operations correctly, right? But he had them on the squad. He goes to the Nets. I'll give you this. Buddy don't always get me 15 plus. I'll give you that. Alright? But when you talk about a 6'10, small four that got a ratty on them, and it looked like the playmaking is decently coming along. I would love to see more defense, but in terms of offensive potential and production, I gotta slide him in at number 10. Now, some of the people who are behind him, underneath him, you know what I'm saying, honorable mentions, yeah. Some of them, some of them don't have his potential. You can argue that some of them have matched his production. I think it's a little bit different. If you want to take him out your top 10, I hear it. All right, but I threw him in there as top 10. Because again, MPJ has seemed to have stepped up Justice Midge. And again, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not giving y'all stats. Not too much, at least. I'm just giving you my personal feel. I test, right? He has stepped up, and I think some other team, I think the Nuggets are going to miss him a little bit. I think another team could try to get him. You know what I'm saying? Like pair him with my Lakers. Actually, that would be an interesting one. I'm not gonna lie to you, because we already got somebody who don't like to defend. So that's another discussion for another day. But MPJ top 10, I think that's fair to say. And again, if he's on a lot of other people's teams, he can make some noise. But again, MPJ, number 10. I'm not gonna put too much, too much Heming and Hall into it. We're gonna go on up to number nine or down to number nine, whichever one you classify it as, right? It's Andrew Wiggins at number nine. Now hear me out, right? Because Wiggs, people sleep on Wigs. We forget that he was just in the finals 2022 and could have gotten finals MVP. That's right. If Steph Curry on out there Steph Curry in, well, Wiggs was out there wigging. And I'm talking about wigging out against Jason Tatum. Like JT, you hear me? He was putting belt to tail, strapping that young man in a seat. Like it was disgusting, and giving points and buckets himself. Again, Andrew Wiggins. We forget he was a number one player, one in high school, number one draft pick. And he'd been one of the better scorers. Like there were a few players that had scored the same amount of points as him, even though he was on the Wolves. We were talking about, oh, Wiggs, not that not that good of a player. Yeah, he can be a little nonchalant at times. But let's be, let's remind ourselves, this is still a 20-point per game scorer who can play really solid defense. And he's fairly athletic still. So again, ladies and gentlemen, Andrew Wiggins at number nine, is he better talent-wise than MPJ? Okay, MPJ might be better offensively. Might be, might be the better scorer. Could be. It's arguable. It could be, though. But defense, when that comes into play, Wiggs is better than MPJ. So I got to put Wiggs ahead of MPJ personally. Now, again, if you want to put MPJ outside of your top 10, I hear it. If you want to put Andrew Wiggins outside of your top 10, I hear it. But I'm curious who you're going to put in for your top 10. And again, some of these players, you might think, oh, well, this person should be a small forward. I don't know if some of these players are small forward-esque. You could, but for my listen, I didn't put them there. So again, Andrew Wiggins, number nine. Welcome aboard, sir. Let's go on and move on up or move on down to number eight, which is Franz Wagner. I think we got to solidify if we're moving up or down. Either way, Franz Wagner, you're here at number eight, champ. Okay, listen to me. If we're going to talk about defense, I think Wiggs is a better defender. But if we're going to talk about offense, I think Franz Wagner is a better offensive player than both MPJ and Andrew Wiggins. He can scroll, right? We can talk about whether or not Wiggs and MBJ are better scorers, but I think it's it's a it's a it's a discussion that might lean Franz. And then we got the playmaking standpoint. And let's not forget, too, he's a solid rebounder. And again, he's not a slouch on the defensive end, ladies and gentlemen. He is the second option on the Orlando Magic. He's been a little, he's been a little injured this season. I'll give y'all that. But when we know when we see Franz play, Franz be moving them puppies on offense and defense. So again, ladies and gentlemen, Franz Wagner, number eight, small forward in the NBA. I think that's fair to say. I really truly do. And if he was on most teams, he would be viewed as the same caliber player. So again, Franz Wagner, number eight. Let's go on and move on up to number seven. I'm saying number, I'm saying up because I'm starting from 10, going all the way up to one, right? So number seven. Number seven. We gotta add my boy Coop. Cooper Flag. And I'm not being biased. Y'all know I'm a Duke fan. He comes from good stock, right? Cooper Flag comes from good stock. Reaching number one pick, doing his thing in his rookie season. Hear me out. The man can score, the man can pass, the man can play play some defense, he can rebound, he can do it all. He just a little young. Like imagine when he's really in his prime, bro. Like Coop can really be an all-star potentially next season or even the season after. I wholeheartedly believe that. Again, he has that caliber talent. He's extremely athletic. He got good size to him. Ladies and gentlemen, Cooper Flag is a stud. So when we're talking about top small forwards, respectfully, you have to consider Cooper Flag in the top 10. Only reason why I wouldn't is if I move some people from my power forward spots into the small forward positions. But again, because of my current listing, Cooper Flag, number seven. Shout out to you, champ. You're a good product. And of course, you come from good stock. Now, let's go ahead and move on up to number six, which we got Denny Obdia. Now, hear me out, right? Because I talked about Coop at number seven. Good player, right? Good, but more potential than anybody that I've listed thus far. Denny Obdia, all-star, by the way, this season. Shout out Denny. He's had a really good season. And keep in mind, people were saying that he was going to be Luca-esque in terms of production. Well, he's kind of given us that. I'm not going to lie to you. He's playmaking pretty well. He's scoring pretty well. He's rebounding pretty well. He got okay defense. I'm not talking about elite, but I'm not saying that Denny's a slouch. Like I would rather have Luca, I mean, I'm sorry, I would rather have Denny as a defender than I would Luca. Now, I might say that about a lot of people over Luca, but again, because Denny was compared to Luca early on, I gotta say, I think Denny's a better overall player, complete player, than Luca is. Luca has to have the ball in his hands in order for him to thrive. Denny don't, Denny can play off ball, Denny can be the can be the focus. And that's what he's been showing. Now, granted, it's Portland. I'll give you that. But it's Portland. And he was an all-star in Portland. Just saying, ladies and gentlemen, Denny Obdi at number six. The reason why I got him ahead of Cooper Flag, he's more of a professional right now than Cooper. Cooper got more potential. But we're talking about right now, ladies and gentlemen. Denny Obdia has been showing, hey, he's a hooper. He can get a bucket. So again, for his all-star season, you gotta have him at number six. You gotta have him at number six, ladies and gentlemen. So with that being said, let's go ahead and move on up to the fifth spot. Which I got my guy Brandon Ingram. That's right. Listen, okay? All-star season. He comes from good stock, too. He just like Coop. He comes from good stock. Good mid-range. You know what I'm saying? Good many. Can shoot the three-ball pretty well. Can play, make the ball. You know what I'm saying? He can score pretty well. Defense, he's cool. I'm not saying he's elite. I'm saying he's cool. All right, you hear me? He's a more professional player than Denny and Coop. Franz a little bit as well, too. Wiggs, okay, debatable, but like Brandon, I think, got more upside than Wiggs on the offensive end. Defensive end, I lean Wiggs. But again, Brandon Ingram has been a multiple-time All-Star. He has all NBA caliber talent. I ain't gonna lie to you. People were considering him to be the next Kevin Durant, remember, right? Right, right, right, right, right. So again, Brandon Ingram, number five. I can't be too mad at that. If you have a gripe with that personally, I don't think you've been paying attention to basketball. Like, Brandon Ingram has been playing pretty daggone well. Crazy thing is, he ain't the best player on his team. But we're gonna get into that though. But again, Brandon Ingram, number five. Ahead of Denny, ahead of Coop, ahead of Franz, ahead of Andrew, ahead of MPJ. Now, number four. We got Jalen Johnson. I know, I know, I know. He comes from good stock, right? He had an all-star season. Actually, whole time Jalen been hooping. And keep in mind, I actually have a gripe with Jalen because Jalen left Duke after he had a wonderful debut game. What was it, 20 points, 19 rebounds, something disgusting? And then shortly afterwards, we start losing. And so he decides to dip. Now, while I had an issue with Buddy, right, in the NBA, he kind of gets in a bucket. A few buckets, actually. And here's the thing, too. He can defend the ball pretty well. Now, he can play make the ball pretty decently, too. Like he is low-key a walking triple double when you think about it. And pairing that with this Hulk, like, listen, I don't think anybody really wants to play the Hawks too, too much. Like, they have a lot of talent. They got a lot of potential. Alright. And if I'm being honest with you, I kind of want to throw another Hulks player in this mix, but it's a little bit too early. So I'm gonna just keep it on reservation right now. But keep in mind, though, he could be on an honorable mention list. But Jalen Johnson on this team, spectacular. And I I gotta consider him as the fourth best small forward in the NBA. I really truly do. Like, I'm sorry. I'm not I'm not biased. Again, I have a gripe with him at Duke, but in the NBA, he's making me open my eyes a little bit and say, hey, bro, you can hoop a little bit, Dolph. So let's go ahead and get, let's let's let's go ahead and get after it, okay? But if you think he's lower because this is his first season as an all-star, all right, I cool. I hear you. I genuinely do. I also saw him getting a bucket last season, though. He was doing his thing. So again, ladies and gentlemen, Jalen Johnson, number four. If you have a gripe with this, I don't know if you've been paying attention to basketball. I really, truly don't. He got the athleticism, he got the stuff. What else do you literally need? We're just trying to figure out can he hit top 10 in the NBA at any point in time in his career? That's what we're trying to figure out right now. That's genuinely what we're trying to figure out. But we'll leave that alone. That's another discussion for number day, for another day. Number three, we're gonna move on up. We got to talk about Scotty Barnes. Again, it was his all-star season. Now, keep in mind, I could have put Scotty at Powell forward, but Scotty's naturally a small forward. I personally think if you pair him with Anthony Edwards, that's gonna be the Jordan and Scotty Pippen that we want to see, right? Because we always can be comparing Anthony Edwards to Michael Jordan. And I think Scotty Barnes can be like Scotty Pippen. That's right. Get Jordan like or Jordan-esque a Scotty. I think that can work out. But Scotty Barnes offensively is a 20-25 per game scorer if he's on the right team. All right, but he also has to do a lot of the defense. He has to get the rebounds, he has to do the playmaking as well, too. I like, bro, because he got someone like Brandon Ingram to where he can defer. But guess what? If need be, he can get himself a bucket. And keep in mind, Scotty Barnes was awarded the all-star nod before Brandon Ingram this season. Just saying. And when we talk about confidence, athleticism, strength, I think Scotty is above BI in all of those. I think in Jalen Johnson's case, he don't have the same athleticism. Jalen can jump. Jalen can jump. I ain't gonna lie to you. Strength-wise, I would lean Scotty. Like, like, like, like, like, what are we doing here? Okay? I there's a world where Scotty Barnes can actually be top 10 in the NBA before long if we're not careful. So again, ladies and gentlemen, Scotty Barnes' number three all-star season. Not his third all-star season, he's number three small four for me and having an all-star season. We gotta ask ourselves, can Scotty win de-poy? I think he can. All the NBA caliber talent, he definitely is. So again, ladies and gentlemen, if you think Scotty Barnes is not top five, like I'll hear you you have a gripe about him being number three. I I think you wouldn't be watching basketball unless you want to add somebody from my power forward list into this list. Cool, I hear that part. But if not, Scottie Barnes gotta be top three. Because there's an argument that he can reach top ten before long. Just saying. Now, we're gonna move on up to number two. And this one's kind of tricky because I could have put him in the same tier as Jason Tatum and Jalen and Jimmy Butler, meaning injured. But Jalen Williams has actually played. J Dub has played this season. Now, he was not an all-star, and you gotta wonder, would he have been an all-star if he was playing? Because if OKC was hooping the way they was hooping, I think he would have been an all-star. And that means somebody would not have been, unfortunately. And J Dub actually had a miraculous finals. Would he follow it up the same time? I think so. He got that, he he he cut from that sort of cloth. He seems like a really good, hardworking individual. He does. Does he have the same offensive potential scoring-wise, the way other players do? That's debatable. Because let's not forget, too, he did drop, what, 40 points in the finals? That's nothing to scoff at. But when you think about him naturally, right? Like, I don't know. I don't know. Like, maybe Coop can score a little bit more than them. Maybe France can score a little bit more than them. B.I. Jalen John, like maybe. But at the same time, I can see him scoring just as well as them, too. Defensively, he wanted the players that guards literally one through five. Playmakes pretty well himself. Like, I like Jalen Williams. If you got a gripe with him being number two and you say that's because he ain't been playing this season, I hear you. I do. If you want to throw Scotty ahead of J Dub, keep in mind, I've actually said I think Scotty is a better upgrade to Jalen Williams. So that way when Shay and J-Dub face Ant-Man and Scotty, I'm leaning Ant-Man and Scotty. But right now, J Dub, I gotta give you the edge just because, again, defender champ. All right. He has not shown us as much as I would like to this season, but keep in mind he showed me enough in the finals that makes me put him at number two. And be honest with you, if number one won't hoop in the way he was hooping this season, ladies and gentlemen, I could have arguably put him at number one. But my number one small forward right now in the NBA, who is an all-star, who did drop 31 points in the game in the all-star games this season, you gotta give it up for Kawhi Leonard. Listen, Robot had Mr. Robot has been hooping this season. He has been reminding folks he is on the same tier as Kevin Durant and LeBron James, which are the freak of nature who can actually get a bucket. You hear me? Notice I ain't list them in this listing, by the way. So you know where they're gonna be slated. But if you want to put them in the small four position, I we may do some reshuffling. But Kawhi Leonard, healthy, oh, he is without question the best player as a small four. He has literally single-handedly brought the Clippers back to relevancy. When people were thinking, Dag, OKC about to get AJ DeBonsa or Cameron Boozer or Darren Peterson. We were thinking that because the Clippers were gonna have to give up their pick because of Paul George trade. Like, that is what we were thinking about. And Kawhi said, nah, we good. I'm about to get us back into the playoffs. Like, like, if you don't think Kawhi, especially with the names that I'm listening off, is not the best small forward. I hear you, injuries are a concern. I'll give you that. This season he ain't been that injured. And he's been injuring other people's chances of feeling like they can actually hoop. Like, Kawhi Leonard is elite on offense and defense. Shot looks stiff as hell. But it goes in religiously. It was disgusting. When he was playing an all-star game, and they were actually competing, by the way, and he had like 31 points. It almost looked like the team said, here you go, Kawhi. It really truly did. And that was crazy work. That was crazy work. And when he goes up against other players, he can defend virtually anybody. Virtually anybody. And that's disgusting. And at the same time, it's gonna be very tough for you to stop Kawhi. It is. He remember, he was getting compared to Jordan Cole. Which, as a Kobe fan and a Jordan GOAT supporter, I can't say I don't understand that. It looked, it looked kind of spot on. So again, ladies and gentlemen, again, I didn't I didn't factor in Jason Tatum and Jimmy Butler. We would have shuffled some people down. I didn't have Braun and KD here at Small Force, they in my Power Ford slot, or else we would have shuffled some people down. I do have some honorable mentions, right? Like we got Paul George, DeMar DeRozan, Mikael Bridges, OG Anobi, Dylan Brooks, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Herbert Jones, Cam Johnson, Asar Thompson, Jaden McDaniels, DeAndre Hunter, and shout out Jonathan Kaminga. I understand we got a couple honorable mentions, like some of them you could have argued top 10. Like I, if you want to say Paul George, I hear it. If you want to say Dylan Brooks, because he's been playing pretty well, okay, cool. Mikhail Bridges, I've called him all NBA at one point in time, I get it. That was more so because of the amount of games that he usually plays. But his talent also is cool too. OG Ananobi, like there are some good players in the honorable mention, but personally my top 10. Especially given the injuries, I think that's solidified. But ladies and gentlemen, if you have some reservations, some gripes about anyone that I've listed off thus far, please make sure you let me know. I'm all ears for it. Because again, I want to hear y'all's thoughts. And I just need to make sure I can hear it. Like, like, can I hear why you're saying that? Can y'all hear why I'm saying some of these names? I would love to hear your thoughts. But, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get A Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.