Having the league's best rebounder and being among the league's worst rebounding teams?

We're not boxing out - maybe we just think because Howard will grab every board they don't bother...

 

It may sound trivial. But I think this team is really missing an enforcer down low. Some toughness/grit. Camby would've filled this role if he could've stayed healthy. Maybe they'll find it via a filler in a coming trade. But honestly, I don't see this team doing damage in the playoffs as currently constructed.

Too many turnovers and no consistent defense/rebounding. Rebounding to a lesser degree thean the other two. Granted, they do have a lot of time to grow. So we'll see.

 

Looks like our top six, 5-man units by minutes are rebounding under 50% as a team (being outrebounded).

They all have Howard in the lineup.

http://www.82games.com/1314/1314HOU2.HTM

What's surprising in units with Casspi in them seem to rebound the best.

 

With Terrance Jones starting it helps. At times when Howard and Jones are out granted Asik is in with a lineup of Lin, Casspi, Parsons and Beverley... that lineup just isnt athletic enough to do it so it takes sharpening up on the pure will to box out. Athletically sometimes Mchale has us at a disadvantage with rotation against certain teams like the clippers, 76ers, Miami will be another. You can throw Asik out there with a bunch of three point chunkers with Lin at point guard and think that is consistently suppose to work... all that does is cause turnovers and a lack of consistent rebounding due to too many players playing that can only play on wide side of the court and are limited in pure athletic ability. Casspi is one guy in particular to me that sucks at rebounding against the pure athleticism of the nba.

 

the key is the other players need to box out their man or help other teammates to box out their man when teammates are doing help defense.

 

Isn't it because Dwight often tries to block shots, which leaves him out of position to grab the board?

And also the fact that Dwight's presence inside makes the other team more reluctant to challenge him inside so they shoot more outside jumpers. More outside jumpers = more long rebounds which = more offensive rebounds for the other team.

 

TJ seems to do a good job of rebounding. Bev is also a descent rebounder.

 

Out of 93 players who average more than 5 rebounds per game, Dwight Howard ranks 76th, last amongst centers in contested rebound % at 29.3%

So most rebounds he gets are uncontested.

Asik is 4th at 53.7%

There's a number of possible explanations, one is that he gets to rebounds quicker so they become uncontested.

The second is that he gets a lot of rebounds that the rockets would otherwise get anyway and doesn't contribute to team rebounding, i.e. stat padding.

 

Boy this f*****g guy again, smh


He goes for a lot of blocks, and we don't box out well. The great rockets teams during the title years were mediocre rebounders before Barkley.

 

There needs to be better balance in our style of play. The way we play, we put more emphasis on fast breaks and forcing early shots in the shot clock, and less on defensive rebounding and half court execution.

We'll win a decent share of games in the regular season playing this way, but its not a style that will be successful in the playoffs.

 

I think the turnovers and lack of defensive rebounding demonstrate the biggest reason we are not a top tier team.

We play casually - loose and free.

but then again, maybe that's part of it. Maybe you have to go through this before you can be a contender. Maybe our guys are still too young to really get it.

 

I think the coaching staff haven actually shown based on last years playoffs that they are fairly flexible game planning for specific opponents. They might feel that they can adjust to specific opponents in the playoffs without having to compromise on their "style".

I have noticed specifically since Asik got benched that there has been a better team emphasis on defensive rebounding, specifically parsons, harden and lin

 

I suspect it might have something to do with team defensive philosophies, which is why I am reluctant to attribute this to rebounding skill directly.

But the general trend is that Cs and PFs trend higher in contests rebound % and guards trend lower in %, which is why it is surprising that Dwight ranks so low.

If you look just at Rockets stats, all the rockets Cs and PFs even including Casspi rank higher than Howard.

 

I think I remember the Ben Wallace Pistons being a lousy rebounding team, at least before they got Rasheed.

I posted in the other thread that I'm not all that worried about it, if only because a) it's early and b) based on how the Spurs tweaked their D last year, it seems like contesting shots without fouling, at the expense of giving up some offensive boards, is a fair trade-off.

Really what concerns me right now is whether we can find a way to consistently deny dribble penetration.

 

The Spurs are the number one Defensive rebounding team in the league, so i don't think they are sacrificing defensive rebounding.