Celtics' Rebounding

[DefenseWinsChamps]

The common narrative is that our achilles heel is rebounding. Even with the addition of Horford, many think we will struggle rebounding the basketball.

I dug into the advanced stats to see what they say. They largely affirm that the Celtics are a bottom 5 rebounding team in the NBA, even though there are other teams with elite individual defensive rebounders who were bottom feeders too (Clippers, Bucks, Rockets, Grizzles, Bulls, Kings were all bottom 10).

My theory on defensive rebounding is that we don't need elite defensive rebounders, but elite philosophies, concepts, and aggressiveness. Even if we don't have an elite defensive rebounder, we can have an elite defensive rebounding team if we play together.

Mining through the stats, I found something fascinating: a player tracking defensive rebounding stat ranked our playoff performance as the second best rebounding rate of any playoff team. Granted, we only played 6 games, but it was 6 games where we didn't play Sullinger, who is largely considered our best rebounder.

I think if we have guys who can rebound their position and fly to the ball on every miss, we can rebound with the best of them.

I think our biggest weakness is shooting efficiency, but I have hopes that with more development and experience (I heard we were the youngest playoff team in the NBA last season, but I'm not sure if that is true), that could improve also.

[Who]

Mining through the stats, I found something fascinating: a player tracking defensive rebounding stat ranked our playoff performance as the second best rebounding rate of any playoff team. Granted, we only played 6 games, but it was 6 games where we didn't play Sullinger, who is largely considered our best rebounder.

Were Atlanta not one of the worst teams in the league at rebounding?

That would skew those playoff rebounding numbers.

[MetroGlobe]

Were Atlanta not one of the worst teams in the league at rebounding?

That would skew those playoff rebounding numbers.

Yes.  Yes it would.  Good thing we aren't counting on a key piece of that Atlanta team for a critical rebounding position on our team.

[footey]

We have one of the highest steal rates too. Does that not negatively affect our defensive rebounding numbers, since presumably there are fewer shots taken by the opposing team?  Would like to know what our defensive rebounding rate is as a percentage of rebounding opportunities, on both the offensive and defensive glass. 

When Doc was coach, we had an awful rebounding rate on the offensive glass because he placed a premium on transition defense.