No Rebounds? No Title!

[jpd985]

Rasheed and KG combined for 9 rebounds in 59 minutes against the Magic. That pretty much says all you need to know.

Well if this continues, like I said, no title.

I agree, they gave up 26 points on offensive boards last night. You can't win getting killed on the glass like that.

[Spilling Green Dye]

I blame the lack of rebounding on

Paul Pierce career 6.2 RPG, 2009-10 4.8 RPG, Career rebound rate 9.7% 2009-10 8.1%
Ray Allen career 4.4 RPG, 2009-10 3.3 RPG, Career rebound rate 7.0% 2009-10 5.5%
Kevin Garnett career 11.0 RPG, 2009-10 7.3 RPG, Career rebound rate 17.1%, 2009-10 14.6%
Rasheed Wallace career 6.8 RPG, 2009-10 4.5 RPG, Career rebound rate 12.1%, 2009-10 11.5%

These are 4 of your top 6 players in minutes played and minutes played per game

What do they all have in common

They are all 32 years old or older and have played between 850-1050 regular season NBA games and between 32000 and 40000 regular season NBA minutes



Maybe all the national media with their "the Celtics are old" rhetoric are right

Age will always start to show in three main areas of a players game: defense, rebounding and shooting percentage

Maybe what we are seeing is what we are supposed to be seeing given the age and amount of games these guys have played

Good Post, TP.

I'd like to point out that while you are all mostly blaming Rasheed, the percentages above say that he hasn't slipped much at all.  Perhaps his minutes are down, but the % is pretty close.

The lack of rebounding is due to a few things:
   - The guards are not getting defensive rebounds or boxing out.  Ray never bothers to box out, and Pierce is unfortunately starting to look real slow-footed.
   - There is not one player coming off the bench now (outside of Rasheed) who is even a decent rebounder.  Scalabrine, Davis, House, etc are all subpar defensive rebounders for their positions.
   - KG is not able to get enough minutes on the court, and is not fully healthy.  If he either got healthier or got more minutes, then it'd help. 

Ultimately they do a lousy job of boxing out. 

[moiso]

We really need to get KG healthy because he's our only great rebounder when he's healthy.  Perk is adequate to good.  It's tough when two of the guys in the big man rotation can't rebound- Davis and Wallace.

[Bankshot]

We really need to get KG healthy because he's our only great rebounder when he's healthy.  Perk is adequate to good.  It's tough when two of the guys in the big man rotation can't rebound- Davis and Wallace.

Actually Davis has been a decent rebounder this year.  He had 4 offensive rebounds last night.

[wdleehi]

We really need to get KG healthy because he's our only great rebounder when he's healthy.  Perk is adequate to good.  It's tough when two of the guys in the big man rotation can't rebound- Davis and Wallace.

Actually Davis has been a decent rebounder this year.  He had 4 offensive rebounds last night.

That's nice.


Where was the effort on the defensive side?  (1 defensive rebound)

[moiso]

When the ball is coming down and Davis has position, I still don't expect him to come down with the ball.  And as far as Wallace, I don't even expect him to be in position.  At least I expect Shelden to come down with the ball.  Wallace and Davis make me long for a beastly stiff like Reggie Evans at times.

[lon3lytoaster]

Solution? Beg LA to give us Camby. I think they're doing fairly well, though. So the chances are pretty slim.

[dasandruler]

I blame the lack of rebounding on

Paul Pierce career 6.2 RPG, 2009-10 4.8 RPG, Career rebound rate 9.7% 2009-10 8.1%
Ray Allen career 4.4 RPG, 2009-10 3.3 RPG, Career rebound rate 7.0% 2009-10 5.5%
Kevin Garnett career 11.0 RPG, 2009-10 7.3 RPG, Career rebound rate 17.1%, 2009-10 14.6%
Rasheed Wallace career 6.8 RPG, 2009-10 4.5 RPG, Career rebound rate 12.1%, 2009-10 11.5%

These are 4 of your top 6 players in minutes played and minutes played per game

What do they all have in common

They are all 32 years old or older and have played between 850-1050 regular season NBA games and between 32000 and 40000 regular season NBA minutes

bingo--ball don't lie baby....and I would add bench production offensively on top of that in regards to title chances.

[PosImpos]

It's called getting older.  Harder to rebound when you have less elevation and less energy.

[Bankshot]

It's called getting older.  Harder to rebound when you have less elevation and less energy.

Sadly, I agree.

[crownsy]

Seriously, if this team doesn't start rebounding better, there is no way they win a title.  How did this team go from one of the best rebounding teams to one of the worst this year?  We can specifically point to the absurd number of offensive rebounds they give up as a big part of the problem.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Doc said recently that he wasn't worried about the rebounding.  I wonder if he still feels that way?

I have to agree bank, rebounding is our Achilles heal.

The thing people forget is that it directly correlates to our defense, and energy in the fourth.

The Celtics have plaed really good defense, for the most part, this year. The problem is, that's physically intensive to do. When you let the other team get two, or even three shots at the basket, your going to tire out quicker.

That affects us both on offense and defense, and leads to tired legs in the 4th.

We have to at least become an average rebounding team by the playoffs, or no matter how well our defense preforms, the fact that we give up offensive board after offensive board will kill us.

[scoop]

I don't think the problem is with the perimeter rebounding. The Celtics perimeter players aren't as good as they'd be if Pierce and Allen were still in their times of excellent rebounding wings but they're still well above average for the league.

The problem is with the bigs: Garnett was the best rebounder in the league but now he's a bellow the rim rebounder - sub-par so far this season, an average rebounder during the play-offs taking an optimistic perspective; Perkins is strictly a positional rebounder - average for a starting center; Scalabrine is horrible; Glenn Davis is mediocre; Rasheed Wallace is just as bad (the biggest reason why I thought the MLE should have been spent in another big man).

So, a couple of average rebounders (best case scenario), a couple of mediocre to terrible ones and, out of the rotation, a 6th man who is average but not spectacular. More importantly, not a single out-of-area rebounder - which is more important in the NBA than area rebounders and guys who box out. This isn't the worse big man rotation in the league in terms of rebounding (Stoudemire/Frye/Amundson/Lopez is clearly worse), but it's not too far off either.

Expecting the perimeter players to overcome this is unfair and ill-advised. I still remember those Nets teams where the backcourt would outrebound the frontcourt often - and I still remember them because because that is such a rarity.

I've been saying from the start of the season this is a big problem for the team - and was told repeatedly that would improve in due time. I still cant' see where will the improvement come from. Maybe the current players have some extra-energy they're saving and will step up. Maybe.

At this point, I think the team priority should be to acquire a good rebounder to play as the 3rd/4th big via trade. Doubtful if such a player is out there, but they should be looking for him.

[Meadowlark_Scal]

The only one who constantly follows the Celtics poor shooting touches is TA, everyone else turns and runs as soon as someone on the clets shoots the ball.  Yes, leon powe was that guy...! BBD wants a new name, tell him to try being leon powe, then he'll have a man's name..! A man we need. Doc has some blame here too...why play scal ever..? 3 pointers, come on. how many other guys do we have to do that already...he shoots , what 2 %..? The only answer i see with what we have is/was sheldon, he loves to rebound but doc never plays him...doc STARTED scal, never sheldon, if you sat scal EARNED it...well, you probably never played bball..not your fault..... scsl belongs in maine or just somewhere else..play sheldon, and forgive him his mistakes as you do....everyone else, especially scal......sheldon knows he is the rebounder, that is his job, he likes it and wants it..! Give it to the man....! Also...the Celts are turning into a jump shooting team, much like the wizards, one and done...look where the wizards are, or were before the gun stuff..no where..!