While looking through the stats from the first few games, it occurred to me that the Hornets might have some serious rebounding problems this year. In the first two games of the meaningless preseason they were out-rebounded 95-71, which isn’t completely telling since they played the deep bench much of the game. It caught my eye nonetheless. As it turns out, aside from center and point guard the team has a pretty real deficiency.
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Aaron Gray and Emeka Okafor clock in 9th and 20th overall among all players who averaged 5 minutes a game for more than 10 games last year, (Sean Marks was 19th), and both project to rebound similarly this year. Although Gray might have a small drop off, he is a good rebounder and his numbers from last year don’t look like a fluke, even though he only played 259 minutes. He’s improved his rebounding numbers in each season so far.
Aside from the centers the team really has a problem pulling down rebounds. While Chris Paul is slightly above average, and Marcus Thornton carries his weight, the rest of the team is all below average. Not a single power forward, small forward or shooting guard was above average last season, and that means trouble. Emeka Okafor, while certainly being a top rebounder, does tend to struggle against bigger centers. If he’s not winning his match up on the boards, it will smell trouble for the Bees in this coming season.
12 responses to “Total Rebounding Rate Numbers For Hornets Players in 2009-2010”
Well when Thorton is on the floor (as opposed to marco) the Hornets are a better than average rebounding team. This seems like another case of significant drop off after the starters leave the game (again not counting Aaron Gray who is in fact a stats monster!)
I love numbers as much as anyone, but I also trust my own eyeballs and although Okafor grabs rebounds, he rarely grabs them cleanly. That might not seem very important, but it delays the fast break by a half of a second, and in the NBA a half a second is an eternity.
Chandler would grab rebounds cleanly and get the ball to CP3 immediately. Okafor just doesn’t dominate the glass- he doesnt give teammates the feeling that he is gonna grab the board, allowing them to get out and run. In that 07-08 season, you just knew Tyson was gonna grab any miss, but you never get that feeling with Okafor. And from the perspective of a guy who has played a lot of basketball, it slows down your transition game, because guys feel they gotta help out.
The numbers don’t show much of a difference, but the eyeball test does in my opinion. I don’t think any Hornet fan who watched every game last year can honestly say that they feel confident that Okafor will snatch a defense board. Heck, how many offensive rebounds did we give up on missed free throws last year.
I hate to bag on Okafor, because he is an above average center and he punches in every night. But the difference between 07-08 TC and Okafor is equal to the difference between CP3 and Jameer Nelson in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with Nelson, and he has his nights (even was once an All Star) , but the two are just in a different league.
DJ Mbenga is coming!!! He will solve all these problems. Bye bye Pops and possibly even Alexander
are u serious sir??
i Like Mbenga, he is tall (7’0). and he is tough and gritty, he is not afraid to scrap it up with taller and bigger defenders and get the rebound. He is definitely defensive minded and lacking an offensive game, but hey, we need defense.. i think this is definitely a good idea by management.
What did we give up for him? I love that Sloth from Goonies looking fool!
He was still a free agent? Wow, I thought I read he signed with someone. I guess I am wrong. Oh well, I know he ate Meks lunch last year when we played the Lakers. He came in for like 12 minutes and had 14,294 rebounds. That’s how I remember it feeling at least.
LMFAO…That reminds me of Kobme’s “I love you Chunk” YouTube video. *sigh* I can’t stand that focker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=pG3yEGN7epE. This was his career night, before his game against the Hornets last year. LOL
Before last year, Ariza’s rebound rate never fell below 10.0. Granted, he played more minutes than ever last year, but he had a rebound rate of 12.0 in ’06-07 when playing 22.4 mpg in 57 games. Given his length and athleticism, I’d say he passes the eyeball test, as well. Unfortunately, Gray and Pondexter will need to carry the second team’s rebounding effort. I think we should all get used to the bench being a disappointment this year.
Yeah I like Chandler’s Ghost too. (Maybe a more accurate description than we would like to consider looking at Tyson’s performance since he left NOLA.)
Still in my near constant defense of OKafor, the analogy isnt a good one unless Jameer Nelson had a better PER than Paul during some period I wasnt aware of. For the analogy to work you have to pick a player with a marginally lesser PER but who you prefer on another basis. Now you could use the Paul vrs. D-Will comparison as your analogy but only if you prefer D-Will.
Now preferring Chandler ..especially during his best year ..is a reasonable position (though one open for debate) To Bolster the argument by invoking Paul and an obviously lesser player only degrades the quality of the position as a whole. For example saying Ariza is a nice player but not as good Jordon is obvious and pointing it out only detracts and or distracts from any other point I may be trying to make.
My point is that Statistics are empirical while “eye-balls” and “gut feelings” are not. Nothing wrong with relying on either and to some extend both are valid. But if the Difference between Okafor and Chandler is equal to the difference between Nelson and CP3 in someone’s eyeballs I tend to question if some emotional factors are clouding judgment.
Purely a preference IMO and I have no problem with people who rely on stats like PER but my experience is that there are so many little things that determine the outcome of a game that could never possibly be measured, so I am more of an eyeball person. A trained eyeball person, but an eyeball person nonetheless.
And the truth is that both work- I mean, look at old school scouts. That method might be archaic but it still worked sometimes and failed other times, just like the modern system. Both have their limitations and ideally you would use a hybrid approach- which I do, but my tiebreaker is always eyeball test over relying on stats. Just a personal philosophy.
I’ll take Okafor. I did some math (!) and here are that stats that I would like to add to the discussion: Chandler’s total rebounds the last two seasons=713; Okafor’s total rebounds the last two seasons=1569. Okafor DESTROYS Chandler. Yes, it would be great to have an uninjured Chandler from the regular season 07-08. But that’s not real. It would also be great to have Alonzo Mourning back as a rookie. If Chandler has a great season- including the playoffs- and Okafor has another off year, I’ll change my mind.