Is Brook Lopez really a bad rebounder?

[Eddie20]

The question isn't if Lopez rebounds well or not, because the raw numbers don't lie. However, do they tell the entire story? Does he contribute to rebounding? When he is on the floor does his team rebound at higher rate than when's off the floor, despite his subpar numbers? When I watch Lopez play I always see him box out properly (a lost art in today's NBA) and put a body on his opponent. This contributes to his teammates grabbing a lot of rebounds. For example, Thad Young last year set a career high with 9 RPG. His previous high was 7.5. This year, Trevor Booker is averaging a career high 8.5 RPG. His previous high was 6.5 RPG.

To expand on my premise here's this:

John Schuhmann of NBA.com looked at a few tidbits uncovered by the cameras last season, including some ways in which Brooklyn Nets center and much-maligned-for-rebounding-issues Brook Lopez was a more impressive rebounder than forward Reggie Evans, who set an NBA record for highest rebound percentage ever last season (min. 50 games).
According to Schuhmann, in 18 games under the watchful eyes of Spor**** cameras, Lopez actually grabbed 63% of all rebounds when he was in the vicinity of the ball, compared to just 62% for Evans. 54% of Lopez's rebounds were contested, while only 31% of Evans's were, and Lopez traveled more than 2 feet further on average to grab his rebounds.
We (and others) have dissected how Brook Lopez's attention to boxing out made Evans's job as a rebounder easier, and the Spor**** numbers back it up; Lopez's rebounds often come while fighting others for position, while Evans's are a result of Lopez clearing that space.
According to NBA.com, Brook Lopez grabbed 13.2% of all available rebounds when he was on the floor this season, ranking him 55th in the NBA among players with at least 50 games played and 20 minutes played per game. (Evans ranked first, by a wide margin.) The team as a whole grabbed a higher percentage of rebounds with Lopez on the floor (52.9%) than off (51.2%)

[Greenbean]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

[YoungOne87]

yeah alway saw that he boxes out very well, which our team certainly could use.
But I dont like the Lopez Horford pairing on defense.

[Vermont Green]

They have scoring +/- for on court and off court and also defense, why not rebounding on court off court numbers?  I think it would be interesting.

[mctyson]

The question isn't if Lopez rebounds well or not

Correct.  The question is why do we we care?  The Celtics are not taking him and his $20M salary.  So it doesn't matter if he is Zeller-like or Moses Malone reincarnate.

Note: very negative comment on a non-Celtics post.

[max215]

They have scoring +/- for on court and off court and also defense, why not rebounding on court off court numbers?  I think it would be interesting.

He's a slight positive.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lopezbr01/on-off/2017

[kozlodoev]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

[Greenbean]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

Use your eyes. Our bigs are rarely carving out space. Guards dont board on the Celts because bigs are sealing. They have to crash on this team because they dont have a pair of bigs who can control the glass. Id love for ab to be out on the break instead of crashinbf the glass. Boston is 2nd to last in the league in rebounding %. Although BK is 3rd to last at 47.7 which makes me question all of the lopez data from the op 

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/total-rebounding-percentage

[kozlodoev]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

Use your eyes. Our bigs are rarely carving out space. Guards dont board on the Celts because bigs are sealing. They have to crash on this team because they dont have a pair of bigs who can control the glass. Id love for ab to be out on the break instead of crashinbf the glass. Boston is 2nd to last in the league in rebounding %. Although BK is 3rd to last at 47.7 which makes me question all of the lopez data from the op 

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/total-rebounding-percentage

I use my eyes. My eyes say that the only reason Bradley is able to waltz for uncontested rebounds is because our bigs have their assignments pinned down. The problem with our team is not boxing out, it's that our bigs are not mobile enough to go and get the ball after they box out. Lopez doesn't help with this, really.

[Greenbean]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

Use your eyes. Our bigs are rarely carving out space. Guards dont board on the Celts because bigs are sealing. They have to crash on this team because they dont have a pair of bigs who can control the glass. Id love for ab to be out on the break instead of crashinbf the glass. Boston is 2nd to last in the league in rebounding %. Although BK is 3rd to last at 47.7 which makes me question all of the lopez data from the op 

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/total-rebounding-percentage

I use my eyes. My eyes say that the only reason Bradley is able to waltz for uncontested rebounds is because our bigs have their assignments pinned down.

Ok we arent going to agree on what we see then. So youre saying the reason we are at the bottom of the league in Rebounding rate isnt because our bigs arent boxing out, it is because our guards and wings arent grabbing more rebounds? The bigs are doing their job perfectly, its on everyone else?

[kozlodoev]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

Use your eyes. Our bigs are rarely carving out space. Guards dont board on the Celts because bigs are sealing. They have to crash on this team because they dont have a pair of bigs who can control the glass. Id love for ab to be out on the break instead of crashinbf the glass. Boston is 2nd to last in the league in rebounding %. Although BK is 3rd to last at 47.7 which makes me question all of the lopez data from the op 

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/total-rebounding-percentage

I use my eyes. My eyes say that the only reason Bradley is able to waltz for uncontested rebounds is because our bigs have their assignments pinned down.

Ok we arent going to agree on what we see then. So youre saying the reason we are at the bottom of the league in Rebounding rate isnt because our bigs arent boxing out, it is because our guards and wings arent grabbing more rebounds? The bigs are doing their job perfectly, its on everyone else?

See edit to my original post.

[Greenbean]

Tp. I dig this analysis. Maybe this team does improve overall rebounding with lopez. We dont have any big who consistently boxes out. I wonder what the advanced motion tracking data days about his ability to play team defense...

Avery Bradley's 7 rpg say otherwise...

Use your eyes. Our bigs are rarely carving out space. Guards dont board on the Celts because bigs are sealing. They have to crash on this team because they dont have a pair of bigs who can control the glass. Id love for ab to be out on the break instead of crashinbf the glass. Boston is 2nd to last in the league in rebounding %. Although BK is 3rd to last at 47.7 which makes me question all of the lopez data from the op 

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/total-rebounding-percentage

I use my eyes. My eyes say that the only reason Bradley is able to waltz for uncontested rebounds is because our bigs have their assignments pinned down.

Ok we arent going to agree on what we see then. So youre saying the reason we are at the bottom of the league in Rebounding rate isnt because our bigs arent boxing out, it is because our guards and wings arent grabbing more rebounds? The bigs are doing their job perfectly, its on everyone else?

See edit to my original post.

Just did. i think we agree then lol. Especially after checkig data that bk is not a good revounding team overall despite the data in the op. All that boxing out is putting them mear the bottom of the league too.

[kozlodoev]

Just did. i think we agree then lol. Especially after checkig data that bk is not a good revounding team overall despite the data in the op. All that boxing out is putting them mear the bottom of the league too.

I love Tommy, but I think the NBA has changed from his playing days when you could just box out and let the other guy "lead you to the ball". Players are bigger, faster, and more athletic. Boxing out is great, but you also to be the first to the ball. I think the team is consciously trying to address this deficiency by having guards, and more specifically Bradley, crash the boards. That is not optimal, but it's better than nothing.