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

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2025 8:55 pm
by 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.

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

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2025 9:16 pm
by 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.

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

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2025 1:43 am
by One_and_Done
Kawhi. Not even close.

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

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2025 4:01 pm
by 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.