Defense and rebounding

[ThePaintedArea]

All I know is that Boston's been hurt by bad rebounding waaaay too many times in the last decade, and I hope that changes this year.

The numbers and rankings of the 2008 Celtics title team compared to last years Celtics. 
           
                  Regular season
            Off. Reb.%    Def. Reb.%

07/08    26.6(17T)      74.4(8.)
15/16    25.1(9T)        74.6(25T)

Last years C's were slightly better than the title team on the defensive end % wise, slightly worse on the offensive end.  What you should be hoping for is the C's to score more efficiently (which they certainly should this year) resulting in fewer rebounding opportunities for their opponents.  I wouldn't expect their rebounding percentages to go up strictly because of how Brad chooses to use his big men.  All of Horford/K.O./Jerebko and even Amir will spend a lot of time on the perimeter offensively, and defending the perimeter and transition on defense.  It is far more valuable to do so and sacrifice a few rebounds in the process.

If I am reading those stats correctly (# is the percentage of possible opportunities the team had to rebound the ball) then I find an interesting trend is apparent.

This past year we were a hair better at defensively rebounding the ball, but compared to everyone else in the league we were tied for 25th best. For offensive rebounding we were significantly worse, but compared to our peers we were better than that respective title year.

Very interesting trends happening in the nba.

More threes league-wide, and the Celtics foul a lot.

[ThePaintedArea]

OKC, CLE, and SAS were all top 5 in the league in Rebound Rate.  GSW, MIA, POR, and TOR were top 10.

All of the teams that made the 2nd round of the playoffs, with the exception of the Hawks -- who got steamrolled -- were in the top 10 in Rebound Rate during the regular season.


In the playoffs, OKC and CLE were 1 and 2 in Rebound Rate.  GSW was 10th.

In the Finals, Cleveland out-rebounded Golden State 307 - 279.  The edge in ORB was 82-72.  Considering the series came down to the final shot, that's fairly significant.


I think you're right that rebounding may be overrated somewhat in the regular season, but rebounding helps you a lot in the playoffs.

The last time I had a discussion about rebound % or rebound rate as you call it I almost blew a gasket trying to explain it LOL.  Rebound % is a misleading statistic, winning teams usually have better reb. % because their opponents miss more shots than they do affording them more rebounding opportunities on the defensive end skewing the Total reb.% to make them appear to be better at rebounding which is not necessarily the case.  They do get more rebounds because everyone has an advantage on their defensive end and if your opponents miss many more shots than you do you will have a natural advantage on total reb. % even though they may very well have been out rebounded % wise on both ends of the floor.

Meditation helps.

Good explanation, btw.