Who do you rank higher all-time, Elgin Baylor or Kawhi Leonard?

[Sailor Haumea]

With Kawhi now having played just one fewer season than Baylor, I'm curious who people generally rank higher.

I personally lean towards Kawhi due to the fact that he's maintained a fairly consistent scoring efficiency, whereas Baylor declined statistically efficiency wise as time went on.

[penbeast0]

Kawhi adds great defense, though not in the years he adds great offense, but still his defense probably better than Baylor's. Baylor adds great rebounding, particularly in his earlier years; even discounting for pace and opportunity, still presumably considerably higher than Kawhi and that was also more important in his era.

I tend to lean Kawhi as well without doing any deep analysis, though Baylor is certainly more important to the history of the NBA.

[One_and_Done]

Kawhi. Not even close.

[tsherkin]

I don't really see a compelling argument for Baylor at this stage. He was an important player in his time, popular, a high-scoring guy, very athletic and all that. Pretty good scorer for his first half-decade, but did age GREAT through the mid/late 60s or into the 70s, and then started dealing with injuries and such. To me, he was always the model of a guy who should have shot a lot less.

penbeast's remark about rebounding is pretty on-point though, as Baylor was fantastic in that regard. I think I value Kawhi's defense and efficiency a lot more, but it was still a significant strength for Elgin.