Be Thankful for Rebounds

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When it comes to rebounds, the more you get, the better, right? You never look down at the stat sheet and get upset over JUST 10 rebounds. And when your big walks off the court with only 3 rebounds at the end of the game, that sucks. So what’s the point of a stat called rebound percentage?

The point is valuing the rebounding numbers that don’t stand out.

For instance, last week Duke freshman Marvin Bagley played only 10 minutes against Michigan State because of an eye injury. He left the game with 6 rebounds. Not a bad total but just a fraction of the team’s 42 rebounds. Rebounding percentage factors in minutes played and total rebounds. When we look at this for Bagley, he had a staggering 33% total rebound percentage and an even more impressive 46.5% offensive rebounding percentage. In other words, for the short time he was on the court, Bagley had almost half of the available offensive rebounds and a third of the overall rebounds.

His teammate Wendall Carter has 12 rebounds on the night but in 27 minutes, his rates are 25% total rebounds and 17% offensive rebounding percentage. No on is unhappy with 12 boards but it really shows you how impressive Bagley was in just a short time.

To give you some perspective, the current NBA leader in offensive rebounding percentage is under 20% and the overall leader is well under 30%.  So this Thanksgiving, remember rebounding percentage gives you a chance to thank someone who picks up just a few rebounds but does it in limited action.