I used to give MoT hell for producing 5 or 6 rebounds over the course of about 36 minutes so now its Eddies turn. He was a demon like rebounder in college and he must bring some of that to the NBA. There is just no excuse for him not to do a much better job rebounding. In last nights game we lost because of one thing and one thing only…rebounding. We out shot Philly from the field, from the arc and from the charity stripe. So how did Philly score more points? Offensive rebounds! The 76ers had 24 freakin offensive rebounds last night! Great defense means nothing if you can’t close the deal by getting the defensive rebound. NBA offenses will eventually get the ball in the hoop if they have enough shots. Cato was the only one of the big men on our team that looked like he could get a defensive rebound. I know Yao Ming also shares in this responsibility but I am giving him a mulligan until he can get adjusted to the team and the speed of the NBA as well as the physical nature of the game over here. Yao Ming will eventually have to answer questions as to why a 7’6” 300 lb player can not rebound if he does not learn how to do it any better than last night. Having said that I do believe that he will turn into a very good rebounder eventually. So getting back to Eddie, what is his problem rebounding in the NBA? I don’t buy the fact that he is just not physical enough or not developed enough. I can’t help but wonder if he is just not aggressive enough. I haven’t seen any games this summer so I can only speculate for now. But last season there were several times that I thought it looked like he just did not want to get in the way of Steve or Cato or who ever else on our team wanted the ball. It looked like when he decided he wanted the ball then he could get it but he deferred the rebound to a teammate that sometimes did not come up with the board. So for those that have seen the pre-season games is Eddie just not aggressive enough? Is he getting pushed out of position to get the board? Is he getting himself out of position by going after a block on every single shot? What do you see as the problem?
You are right on the money partner!! I know many Rocket fans are against this but I strongly feel that the ROx needs to trade for a rebounder/bruiser/defensive thug. Our team is full of finnesse type guys. Griffen is gonna be a stud but rebounding and banging people are not his strengths. Blocking shots and slashing is what he specializes at. Ming is great and will come around but it will take time. If we make him play that style of ball right away, he is doomed to get in foul trouble. Most players would be. I urge the Rox to get a guy who likes to play d, rebound and do the grunt work. There is a HUGE difference between trying to convert a great player like Griffen to that role. It will take lots of time in which we can not afford. Players like Malik Rose, Scott Pollard etc.
What a coincidence! Banging chicks is my biggest strength. Maybe I could join the Rox frontcourt. Seriously though, this team is a Jerome Williams/Danny Fortson away from being a serious contender.
I agree. We lost this game, and IMO the San Antonio game because of rebounding. As for Eddie, he's had some really good rebounding games (I think as high as 13 or 14 in this preseason stretch), and above that, a great knack for finding the ball, and unlike Cato, actually holding on to it. Yesterday, he just couldn't seem to find the right spot to be on the rebounds. Perhaps just a weird anomaly where he was never near the ball, or he was less aggressive/holding back because it was a preseason, or perhaps he was trying to block everything, and therefore was not in a position if the shot got by him. He's also still not quite as strong as he needs to be/will be. As Rudy said, with his combo of height, and freakishly quick leaping with absolutely zero loading time needed, he can get most on demands needed. KT is also probably one of the top rebounding SFs once we can get him back which should also be part of the cure. It should also be noted that Philadelphia and the Rockets were taking primarily jump shots. Those tend to produce longer rebounds so it's possible I guess that too many rebounds were ending up closer to the FT line, and out of the big mens' range.
Eddie is averaging 7.5 rebounds in 28 mins this preseason. Thats 10 rebounds per 35 mins, which is about the amount he might see a game this year. Hell be an even better rebounder as time passes. The Sixers are just a good rebounding team and there will be games where we squash people on the boards and where we get squashed ourselves.
True.. Rose didn't fair well THAT game... But that kinda brings me to my point and my point is that we already have plenty of superstar types. Now we need to get a few guys who dont like to shoot but like to hustle, set screens, rebound, play d, dive for loose balls etc. Rose does a great job for San Antonio even if his stats dont show it. He allows Duncan to roam a bit and do what he does best... Rox fans who think Yao is gonna come in and average 13 boards his rookie year are in for a wakening. I am a big Yao fan but we need role players to give him support. We need to add another team/non-selfish player.
You're getting close to being FARTed on... We have the types you are asking for already. MT, EG, KT, TMo are all capable. We were missing three most of last night. I'll take those three over Rose any day.
i still don't get this thug/enforcer thing. we don't have a specific need for that, all we need is people who work hard and fill their roles. i think we're set in that department. last night we missed both kenny and mo and yao still is getting acclimated. quite a few rebounds were ones that he missed. eddie won't be getting 10 a game this year but he is solid in rebounding and usually pretty agressive. here are the rebounding numbers last year for 2 "thugs" that people love. jerome williams - 5.70 kenyon martin - 5.30 kenny thomas - 7.20 mo taylor(00-01) - 5.50 good players yes but any better than kt or mo, probably not.
Exactly, we were missing out "JYD" and that's Thomas. He's our ferocious defender/rebounder who boxes out. Codell's got a good point, the sixers are a damn good rebounding team. That's Larry Brown's style, because that team will miss many shots so go for the offensive rebound.
FOr us to win, the must rebound more....firstly at the defensive end and then offensive. More importantly I THINK Steve needs to rebound!!! He was coming along fine as a playmaker in the first few pre-season games (and got 10 dimes in one of the games). I think since YAO came in and got all the publicity, Steve is now trying to do toooo much and as a consequence the team is starting to suffer. DId anyone else notice this?
At times I see flashes of the old iso offense and it usually comes from him, but in a lot of ways I think that he is trying to find a suitable role for himself in order to get others involved. Sometimes I also think that we are over-analytical and that we should accept the fact that he needs to, "get his", in order to be an effective play-maker.
When we won our championships we did not rebound all that well. I don't think we HAVE to rebound more. Rebounding more will only help, but I don't think it is worth a trade. I just don't think the Rockets are a rebounding type of team.
Come on guys. No team has won a championship in the last 10 years without this bruiser/enforcer in the paint. Hakeem, Thorpe, Shaq, Rodman, Rodman again, Oakley, and the list goes on... All Champions have a vicious frontcourt player. Maybe Toronto would deal JYD to us? They need depth up front. But I don't know what we could give them in addition to KT. Cato would send them into luxury tax territory, and I don't know if we can let go of him yet anyway. If they think MoT and Antonio Davis can play extended minutes at C, then maybe a KT + MoT for JYD + Unprotected 1st rounder would work?
OK so here is a breakdown of Griffins games and rebounds. They are not as bad as I thought but in the 3 games where he played more than 30 minutes the numbers are not encouraging. In the other 4 games he really looks like he had some real nice rebounding games, particularly the 13-rebound game in Phoenix. Memphis: 5 in 35 minutes = very bad San Antonio: 7 in 26 minutes = good Phoenix: 13 in 30 minutes = excellent Portland: 6 in 22 minutes = good Orlando: 7 in 16 minutes = excellent San Antonio: 8 in 38 minutes = bad Philadelphia: 6 in 36 minutes = very bad Like I said in the first post I have not actually seen any of the games but it was still obvious that we would have won against Philly if we would have just managed to keep them off of the offensive glass. IMO 24 offensive rebounds will negate 11 blocked shots. Defensive rebounding is a part of defense and even if you hold the other team to 38 percent shooting, you did not play good defense if you allowed your opponent to collect 24 offensive rebounds. Anyone remember the Charles Barkley commercial where he is talking about rebounding and he says, “If you can’t get the ball you can’t score”. BTW I am not advocating a trade. I just want to see the guys that are suppose to be rebounding to start doing their jobs. I still think they will.
No. No. No. We can lose the rebounding war every time. On the other hand: Score more points than the opposing team, and I will bet we win every time.
Let the opposing Let the opposing team get 24 offensive boards in every game and we will not be winning very many games! BET ME!
