Ariza is an excellent rebounder. Smith is as well, if he commits himself to it. The only problem is while they have the physical tools to rebound at an exceptional rate... at the very least Smith and Jones fail to put themselves in the right position to grab those boards.
Remember when Curry boxed out Howard? He stuck his butt in Howard's knees. That's sound technique. Exactly what Calvin Murphy implored the Rockets to do all season long. But the Rockets are either not coached to do it, or are coached to do it and not held accountable.
A combination of Houston having to defend the perimeters, switching and having to STAY ATTACHED TO the shooters, that have the bigs far from the basket and going small since out PF sucked today. If we were making buckets tonight McHale would have been able to go big but it didn't happen. If this team fix the defensive rebounding and transition defense watch out because they are extremely good in half court defensibly. If we can get Tristan Thompson or someone like that instead of Jones along Howard, and Sophomore Capella, watch out. Fixed that and get a true PG while Keeping the core to develop chemistry and we are good.
We no longer suck at rebounding. We have the 3rd best rebounding rate in the entire League, 4th in the League in ORB!
We got rid of one of the best rebounders in the league and our team rebounding shot up. Go figure. I think individual rebounding is generally overrated.
I you really watch, Capela is doing an excellent job not only grabbing rebounds but boxing out and tapping balls even if he can't get his hands on it. Over the past 7 games the guy is avg 12/9/2.5 in only 24 mpg. He's steady getting better on both sides of the ball but I'm really impressed with his rim protection and overall rotations. He's been a very big reason our defense has improved since the first few games. If he can get up to 30-32mpg the guy will be a legit 15/12/3 guy without a doubt in my mind he's looked very good over the last 7 games. Harden is also crashing into the paint after shots are put up by the opposition. I mean he's avg 8 rebounds a game, that's pretty decent for a PF but for a guard that's elite. Ryno is excellent on the offensive boards, it's strange because I would have never thought he was this good at getting second chance points. Bev is also a very good rebounder for a guard so he'll help that reserve unit out a lot when he's out their with them. Overall I have been very impressed with the rebounding and even the defense is improving. The rockets are actually very good on that end in the second half which imo is Better that it being the opposite. Hopefully we can fix that going foward and be more consistent throughout the game.
Capela done good. No help outside of James. But this is more than I could have hoped for a team that utterly relied on Howard to do the dirty work. They have at least matched the output and Capela looks the part too.
Trez has doubled his per minute rebounding rate this year. I am hoping and praying that is a real evolution, because If it is we have a stud on our hands. 6 rpg per-36 last year, 12 rpg per-36 this year. Very small sample size obviously, but If he shows that he can rebound I think we might have something. His defensive instincts, his hands and especially his energy are otherworldly.
Ariza played tons at the 4 last year. That killed the rebounding. Harden has also hugely increased his rebounding
I think the obvious factors are that the team is boxing out more than they ever did with Howard, and Capela developing exactly how (most people) projected him to develop. I hope Capela can take yet another step. I expected him to be this good at the end of the season, not 7 games in. His progress has always been ahead of schedule though, so maybe surprise is unwarranted.
For those that didn't realize, this thread was started after GSW beat us in the WCF. This thread isn't from last year. In 2015, Rockets ranked 28th in defensive rebounding %. (we were last in 2016)
