Is rebounding going to be a problem?

[SCeltic34]

I have some serious concerns about the Celtics ability to rebound the ball with the current roster as constructed.

Last season, the Celtics were below average, or 18th in the league in total rebounding % at 49.4%, and among the worst defensive rebounding % teams at 25th. 

We lost Sullinger, who was by far our best rebounder on the team, with a defensive reb% of 27.1% and total reb % of 18.7%.  Excluding David Lee, Amir and Jerebko were our two next best rebounders, at roughly 19.5% defensive reb % and 14.9% and 13.3% total reb%, respectively.

With the loss of Sullinger, the Celtics project to be even worse than last season.  Horford's RPG has declined over past seasons, possibly in some part due to his increased role on the perimeter.  His defensive reb% was 18% and his total reb% was 12.2% with the Hawks last season, with a RPG of 7.3 over 32.1 minutes.  Definitely not on Sully's level as a rebounder, even though he is a far superior player.  Notably, Horford did average roughly 9-10 rebounds per game earlier in his career, but this was with more minutes per game. 

We have too many weak rebounders on our team, especially our bigs.  Olynyk and Zeller are weak.  Mickey is suspect.  Rozier is a strong rebounding guard, but we can't hinge our rebounding needs on a ballhandler (as termed in Stevens' system, or PG/SG, whatever you want to call it), much less a ballhandler who will likely be receiving limited minutes barring injury to our starting guards.

Our starting lineup, which will probably be Amir, Horford, Crowder, AB, and IT, I think will be able to do a passable job rebounding the ball; however, once we mix and match our star or play small lineups is when we're going to have problems.

We're going to be a great defensive team - again.  But nothing is more frustrating than playing 18-23 seconds of great defense and forcing a missed shot, only to surrender an offensive rebound. 

Thoughts?  Are these concerns overstated?  Will Crowder, Brown, Smart, etc. be able to contribute enough to keep us competitive on the rebounding front?

[Ilikesports17]

Im worried for sure.

[Fafnir]

Yes it will be.

[cornbread1981]

I have multiple sources saying we have a 99.9% of getting andre drummond for james young and rj.

In all seriousness the situation has got worse amir and kelly have to step it up i would also rather jaylen gets out and runs once the shot misses but we might need him to hang around like he did in SL

[jambr380]

Your concerns are valid. Hopefully guys like Smart, Rozier, and Crowder can cover for our bigs. I know you mentioned Sully as a reason we should be worried, but Turner was also a very effective rebounder at his position.

[A Future of Stevens]

I have some serious concerns about the Celtics ability to rebound the ball with the current roster as constructed.

Last season, the Celtics were below average, or 18th in the league in total rebounding % at 49.4%, and among the worst defensive rebounding % teams at 25th. 

We lost Sullinger, who was by far our best rebounder on the team, with a defensive reb% of 27.1% and total reb % of 18.7%.  Excluding David Lee, Amir and Jerebko were our two next best rebounders, at roughly 19.5% defensive reb % and 14.9% and 13.3% total reb%, respectively.

With the loss of Sullinger, the Celtics project to be even worse than last season.  Horford's RPG has declined over past seasons, possibly in some part due to his increased role on the perimeter.  His defensive reb% was 18% and his total reb% was 12.2% with the Hawks last season, with a RPG of 7.3 over 32.1 minutes.  Definitely not on Sully's level as a rebounder, even though he is a far superior player.  Notably, Horford did average roughly 9-10 rebounds per game earlier in his career, but this was with more minutes per game. 

We have too many weak rebounders on our team, especially our bigs.  Olynyk and Zeller are weak.  Mickey is suspect.  Rozier is a strong rebounding guard, but we can't hinge our rebounding needs on a ballhandler (as termed in Stevens' system, or PG/SG, whatever you want to call it), much less a ballhandler who will likely be receiving limited minutes barring injury to our starting guards.

Our starting lineup, which will probably be Amir, Horford, Crowder, AB, and IT, I think will be able to do a passable job rebounding the ball; however, once we mix and match our star or play small lineups is when we're going to have problems.

We're going to be a great defensive team - again.  But nothing is more frustrating than playing 18-23 seconds of great defense and forcing a missed shot, only to surrender an offensive rebound. 

Thoughts?  Are these concerns overstated?  Will Crowder, Brown, Smart, etc. be able to contribute enough to keep us competitive on the rebounding front?

Lets put it this way, I almost comvinced myself to want D.howard over horford even though he is a shell of his former self. This is on top of the fact that horford is literally the perfect system center for stevens.

Im forecasting a good record, but we all know there will be binge worthy sessions where they cant buy a rebound.

[Evantime34]

I do think it's a concern, in fact I think it's the biggest concern the current team has. That being said I think there are players on our team who could step up to mitigate this concern.

Amir rebounded much better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. If that continues that will go along way towards helping the deficiency. Crowder, before getting injured had a string of games where he averaged in the high single digits. Rozier and Smart have also been plus rebounders at the guard position early in their NBA careers.

So it might be an issue, but if we have players step up it won't be as big of one.

[SCeltic34]

I've always been one of those people who don't particularly care for RPG as a stat (although when someone grabs 12+ RPG, it is impressive).  It's strongly influenced by pace, as well as the quality of rebounders on your team (e.g. if you have Drummond as the center, the other players RPG will be less robust).  For example, Thaddeus Young had typically been a 5-6 RPG player until last season when he played next to Brook Lopez (a terrible rebounding center), and averaged 9 RPG.

I like players who actually box out and help their team be in position to grab a rebound, even if their RPG is less than impressive.  After all, as long as someone in green grabs the ball, I couldn't care less who actually got the board.

I should've titled the post "Rebounding will be a problem", but I do try to steer away from things that sound inherently negative when posting.

[Surferdad]

All good points and it really could be a problem.  However, someone who is not a lazy as I am should look up the rebounding stats for GS, who IIRC are not a great rebounding team.  That said, CLE, OKC and SAS are vey good rebounding teams.

Also keep in mind that rebounding is dependent on opportunity which translates to offensive and defense FG%, along with pace as mentioned above.

[PickNRoll]

Yes, definitely.  We need a bruiser.  Pachulia would've been nice.

[snively]

All good points and it really could be a problem.  However, someone who is not a lazy as I am should look up the rebounding stats for GS, who IIRC are not a great rebounding team.  That said, CLE, OKC and SAS are vey good rebounding teams.

Also keep in mind that rebounding is dependent on opportunity which translates to offensive and defense FG%, along with pace as mentioned above.

Bogut and Ezeli were very good rebounders for GSW. Draymond really good on the defensive glass too.

Helped make up for how much smallball they played with mediocre rebounders like Barnes and Thompson.

The team to look at is Atlanta- their weakness on the glass on both ends caused them a lot of problems. The lack of offensive boards put a ton of pressure on their shooters and the weakness on the defensive glass got them pounded by the Cavs.

[Celtics4ever]

We lost Sullinger, who was by far our best rebounder on the team, with a defensive reb% of 27.1% and total reb % of 18.7%.  Excluding David Lee, Amir and Jerebko were our two next best rebounders, at roughly 19.5% defensive reb % and 14.9% and 13.3% total reb%, respectively.

With the loss of Sullinger, the Celtics project to be even worse than last season.  Horford's RPG has declined over past seasons, possibly in some part due to his increased role on the perimeter.  His defensive reb% was 18% and his total reb% was 12.2% with the Hawks last season, with a RPG of 7.3 over 32.1 minutes.  Definitely not on Sully's level as a rebounder, even though he is a far superior player.  Notably, Horford did average roughly 9-10 rebounds per game earlier in his career, but this was with more minutes per game. 

He also was unreliable and could not play a whole season at a high level.  We won a lot of games the previous when he was sidelined with a foot injury.   Some of that was IT certainly but do not act as Sully was a glue guy, he was not.  JJ did a better job in the playoff than him, too.

We are going to run and we are athletic, perhaps we make the other team play our game this year instead of vice versa?

Bogut and Ezeli were very good rebounders for GSW. Draymond really good on the defensive glass too.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2747/andrew-bogut

How come 5 RPG is good here but Horford's 7 RPG is not.

[SCeltic34]

We lost Sullinger, who was by far our best rebounder on the team, with a defensive reb% of 27.1% and total reb % of 18.7%.  Excluding David Lee, Amir and Jerebko were our two next best rebounders, at roughly 19.5% defensive reb % and 14.9% and 13.3% total reb%, respectively.

With the loss of Sullinger, the Celtics project to be even worse than last season.  Horford's RPG has declined over past seasons, possibly in some part due to his increased role on the perimeter.  His defensive reb% was 18% and his total reb% was 12.2% with the Hawks last season, with a RPG of 7.3 over 32.1 minutes.  Definitely not on Sully's level as a rebounder, even though he is a far superior player.  Notably, Horford did average roughly 9-10 rebounds per game earlier in his career, but this was with more minutes per game. 

He also was unreliable and could not play a whole season at a high level.  We won a lot of games the previous when he was sidelined with a foot injury.   Some of that was IT certainly but do not act as Sully was a glue guy, he was not.

I never would call Sully a "glue" player.  I've never been a fan of his and I'm someone who is very glad that he's no longer with the Celtics.  But that's a different topic.

That said, it's difficult to deny that he provided us with solid rebounding when he was able to play - something that the C's needed given the makeup of the rest of our squad.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Does a bear crap in the woods?

Seriously, rebounding is always a problem with the Celtics.

[The Oracle]

Rebounding is not necessarily a benefit nor a negative problem, it is a choice.  Do you choose to attack the offensive glass or not do so in order to limit transition opportunities for your opponent?  Do you use your big men on the perimeter to gain spacing advantages while losing some rebounding abilities?  There is a price to pay for either and the best option for your team is often very player dependent and/or coaching decision.  Putting bruisers on the floor will certainly gain you some small advantages rebounding wise but will cost you defensively on the perimeter and likely cost you spacing and shooting on the offensive end.  Better rebounding does not inherently make you better as a team and in the current version of the NBA it appears to be almost a non factor as far as winning games.