FanPost

The Rebounding Issue


I did a rough statistical analysis of defensive rebounding this morning, simply dividing offensive rebounds allowed by opponent FG's missed. Our Knicks, not surprisingly, rank 28th out of 30, turning 26.7% of opponent misses into new possessions. The only two teams worse are the Suns...and... jump for it...

the D-Lee Warriors, who give up a horrendous 29.9% offensive rebound rate, because Lee is regressing as a rebounding force, and their bench has no size whatsoever. The top 5 teams, in order, are Orlando (21.6%), New Orleans (21.9%), Chicago (22.2%), Charlotte (22.7%), and Milwaukee (22.8%). The worst defensive rebounding team with a legitimate title shot is the Lakers at 25.5%, but they've also forced more misses than anyone else, so their defense is doing something right.

Since the Knicks defense relies more on getting turnovers than causing other teams to miss shots, it becomes even more crucial to rebound the misses we do force. Some of the teams that rank highly on this list can be explained by a single player-- Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Andrew Bogut. New Orleans is interesting because like us, they have a scorer at PF in David West who is ineffective on the boards, and having a strong center playing next to him makes his rebounding a non-issue. Charlotte, until the trade deadline anyway, was running a small lineup with Gerald Wallace at the 4, and most of their rebounding came from the center timeshare of Kwame Brown and Nazr Mohammed. That's probably the most hopeful example on the list-- two fairly inexpensive (Brown makes $1.2 million this year) and lightly regarded players providing most of a team's rebounding. Replacing Turiaf and Williams with a more rugged center combo might make a big difference. Now, I like both players, and if Extra E could be re-signed cheaply, I'd welcome him back. Filling Ronny's salary slot with a center that better fits our needs should be an offseason priority.