Some interesting stats about Yao's rebounding against other starting centers after 59 games this season: Yao is avaraging 8.80 rebounds to opposing starting centers' 6.04 rebounds, that's 45% more compare to them. Yao out rebounded opposing starting centers in 45 of 59 games, which is a little more than 76%. In Feb. , he is 9 out of 13, 69%. In 14 games Yao was out rebounded, only Nestorovic did it twice(Rocekts and Spurs played 4 games each other and Yao spent some time defending Duncan) Yao allowed double digit rebounds by opposing starting center 5 times only. Yao did that 23 times to them. Top rebounding centers Dampier averaged 8.5 rebounds(11.9 for the season) , Camby averaged 5 rebounds(10.2 for the season) against Yao. Both are well below season average. Besides Yao's lack of rebounding technic and jumping ability, there are other factors that may affect his rebounding average: 1.Rockets game features a lot less possessions than most of the teams in NBA, second last in the league with 88.4 possessions, only slightly above toronto. 2. Yao seems to be blocking out other centers and got blocked by others as well, so none of them could really get a lot of rebounds.
Wow, interesting stats, looks like Yao's neutralizing the other centers in rebounding. But still he needs to get 10 rebounds a game at least.
May be he just need to be selfish. It seems like he's blocking out and let the other rockets to get the rebound with the space he created by blocking out his man. Or may be he realized it has a higher chance for the team to get a rebound when he box out his man since he may not have the jumping ability and quickness to compete with other centers 1 on 1 in rebounding.
Some interesting stats, but Yao isn't rebounding the way everyone thought he would this year. I don't see why Yao isn't getting atleast 10rpg.
i like that stat, i always though that opposing players are doing whatever they can to box yao out and keep him off the boards. what would make this analysis complete is the average RPG for starting centers in general in this league. if it is higher than 6, then that would further support your hypothesis. but i have a feeling it may be around 6 anyway.
Interesting. But that still doesn't indicate that all is as good as it can be. I think Yao can do a lot better. If only every game was triple overtime, then the stats would go up........
You mean centers who can't score. There are guys who can rebound and defend, or else they wouldn't be in the NBA.
http://www.82games.com/03HOU16C.HTM According to this website, Yao averages 2.8 more rebounds than the opposing center on the court. I don't see any relevance in rebounding as a winning statistic anyway unless Yao consistently gets the rebound taken out of his hands after he has secured it. Cleveland is the top rebounding team in the league, but they would be a lottery team in the West. It's very rare for a top field goal percentage team to be out of the playoffs. Making shots is arguably the most underrated skill for a basketball player. That is why guys like Peja are seen as MVP candidates.
After watching Ducan and Shaq you can see why. They don't even try to get an offensive board. It's intimidation thru size. Which is fine by me. It works. But Yao is no dominant rebounder. Not yet.
http://www.82games.com/comm24.htm According to that site, Yao is # 9 in "Player versus Counterpart" ranking which gives people credit for blocking opposing players out.
Interesting stats all around. Yao is doing well according to those stats, but watching the games, he can obviously have at least 2-3 rebounds more a game because there are just that many times in which the opponent knocks it out of his hand or it's tapped away from him. I swear, I haven't seen 82games.com since i've watched the NBA and that site has been appearing so much as of late in all the forums I peruse. Stuart
It doesn't justify his lack of rebounds. You don't think other PFs or Cs make an exclusive attempt at keeping guys like Garnett, Duncan, or Shaq away from the glass? It doesn't stop them from getting more then their share of boards. Rebounding is about who wants it more, and Yao hasn't shown that often enough. Also grabbing boards is probably one of the easiest ways to get offensive opportunities to score. Duncan gets atleast 6 points a game off offensive put backs as does Shaq. Garnett probably not so much since he's very much a perimeter oriented player but it still doesn't stop the fact that he crashes the boards like a madman. I'll give Yao the benefit of the doubt that he doesn't have the same seasoned experience as those 6+ year veterans, but Yao deserves the same crticism for his play lately the same as everyone on the team.
Yao puts too much attention on the opponent center when fighting for defensive rebounds. He is often lured away from the backet.
This is really not a thread for blaming anybody on the team. Please don't start this "deserve criticism the same as everyone" thing all over again. I just try to show the fact that although Yao needs to improve, his rebounding actually is not as bad as most people think.
Yao is an average rebounder. It's a fact and we'll have to live with that. I doubt that he'll ever average more than 10 rbs a game because he just doesn't react quick enough or jump quick enough. In fact, I think that an ideal rebounder should not be very tall (look at Rodman and Wallace; both are about 6'8"). I actually think that Yao's height is a negative when it comes to rebounding because a 7'6" guy just can't react in the same way that a 6'10" guy does (imagine a 6'8" guy try to move like a 6'0" guy and you get the idea). We'll just need to find fowards who are good rebounders to complement Yao.
I agreed with what lalalalalal said.... at 7"6 people always expect Yao to grab at least 10rpg, i myself expect him to block more than 3 shots a game. But the fact is at 7"6, he is just too slow to react. The other thing i wanna point out is that people tends to forget he is african american who is extremely atheletic. Look at those european/asians players who r more than 7"1. Players like Sabonis, Big Z, Divac, Rik Smiths etc etc... Do anyone of them ever average more than 10rpg a season in their career?????? I will be very happy if yao can finish 9rpg every seasons.
