Post by DERRENMATTS on Aug 20, 2005 18:13:21 GMT -5
A key factor in determining how our season's success goes will be how well we do on the boards.
Last season, we were among the worst rebounding teams, only securing 40.8 boards per game (6th worst in the NBA), and it was around that area even after Walker joined the team in March. Here's how our rebounding numbers looked among our big men:
Raef: 6.9 rpg in 27.5 mpg = .25/min = 12/48 min
Blount: 4.8 rpg in 26 mpg = .18/min = 8.6/48 min
Big Al: 4.4 rpg in 14.8 mpg = .30/min = 14.4/48 min
Perk: 2.9 rpg in 9.1 mpg = .32/min = 15.4/48 min
Ok, so looking at these stats, Blount is the poorest rebounder of them all. And because he'll most likely be losing minutes this year to Perk and Jefferson, who, in return, are much better rebounders, we should see an increase in rebounds per minute. Jefferson was only getting 15 minutes per game last year and with that, he was averaging .3 rebounds per minute. If we boost him minutes to 25 minutes per game, which I feel is about right, his rebounding could be around 7.5 rpg, which would have led the team last year, taking out Walker's numbers. That's an improvement of 3 rpg for Jefferson.
Giving Perkins 18 minutes a game (double what he had last year), he could be pulling down 5.8 rpg, which would have put him in 2nd place last year, right in back of Raef.
So, just by giving Jefferson and Perkins most of the minutes that Blount would have normally been playing, our rebounding would have improved by roughly 6 per game. Blount only offered .18 rebs/minute, so if we minus out his minutes, we would have to take away 3 rebounds from the total. That still give us an improvement of 3 rpg over last year's team.
40.8 rpg = 24th in the league
43 rpg = tied for 7th in the league
See how big of a jump it is just bumping up our rebounding total by 3!!!
Like I said, our rebounding numbers didn't jump up much when Walker came back. Mainly because he played a big amount of minutes, which took away from Jefferson's and Perkin's minutes. And even Raef's rebounding took a hit after Walker's return.
So what happens with Scalabrine's rebounding? Well here's what his numbers look like:
Scalabrine: 4.5 rpg in 21.6 min = .21/min = 10/48 min
Its still to be seen how much minutes Scalabrine will be getting. Jefferson and Perkins should see an increase in minutes this season, while Raef could see a decrease from his 27.5 min/game he had last season. Scalabrine could be the recipient of the minutes available from Blount's and Raef's decreased minutes. And since he's going to be playing a similar role to the one he played in New Jersey, his rebounding per minute should be roughly the same. So if he gets 15 minutes per game, he could roughly average about 3 - 4 rpg.
He and Raef wash each other out because they average nearly the same amount of boards per minute. Overall, the addition of Scalabrine to the team will not be as impactful on the boards as Jefferson and Perkins getting more minutes of playing time.
With Jefferson, Perkins, Raef, and Scalabrine getting the bulk of minutes at the 4 and 5, our overall frontcourt rebounding should be markedly improved over last year numbers--most likely to propell us much higher up the ladder.
But the froncourt is not the only positions we could see improvements in. Every bit counts and we have other positions which we could see rebounding improvents with. Ricky Davis was only pulling down .09 boards per game. Tony Allen was twice as efficient as that, pulling down .18 per minute. So if Allen plays 22 minutes per game, that'd be equivalent to rougly 4 rpg, an improvement of over a rebound per game. If we decrease Ricky's playing time by 5 minutes (which will be given to Tony), we only lose out half a board per game. So that's a positive improvement of more than half a board a game, which, as shown previously, is a big jump up the ladder.
Next, since we lose Payton, we lose out on his .09 rebs per minute. But we replace it with Delonte's .13 rebs per minute. Not that much of an improvement, but every bit counts.
Altogether, our bench is a much better rebounding unit than the one we had for most of last year. We no longer have McCarty and instead we have Reed and Gomes--both of whom are much stronger rebounders.
I'd be surprised if we don't rank among the top 12 in rebounds this coming season. To do that, all we need to do is grab 2 boards more per game than we did last year.
Last season, we were among the worst rebounding teams, only securing 40.8 boards per game (6th worst in the NBA), and it was around that area even after Walker joined the team in March. Here's how our rebounding numbers looked among our big men:
Raef: 6.9 rpg in 27.5 mpg = .25/min = 12/48 min
Blount: 4.8 rpg in 26 mpg = .18/min = 8.6/48 min
Big Al: 4.4 rpg in 14.8 mpg = .30/min = 14.4/48 min
Perk: 2.9 rpg in 9.1 mpg = .32/min = 15.4/48 min
Ok, so looking at these stats, Blount is the poorest rebounder of them all. And because he'll most likely be losing minutes this year to Perk and Jefferson, who, in return, are much better rebounders, we should see an increase in rebounds per minute. Jefferson was only getting 15 minutes per game last year and with that, he was averaging .3 rebounds per minute. If we boost him minutes to 25 minutes per game, which I feel is about right, his rebounding could be around 7.5 rpg, which would have led the team last year, taking out Walker's numbers. That's an improvement of 3 rpg for Jefferson.
Giving Perkins 18 minutes a game (double what he had last year), he could be pulling down 5.8 rpg, which would have put him in 2nd place last year, right in back of Raef.
So, just by giving Jefferson and Perkins most of the minutes that Blount would have normally been playing, our rebounding would have improved by roughly 6 per game. Blount only offered .18 rebs/minute, so if we minus out his minutes, we would have to take away 3 rebounds from the total. That still give us an improvement of 3 rpg over last year's team.
40.8 rpg = 24th in the league
43 rpg = tied for 7th in the league
See how big of a jump it is just bumping up our rebounding total by 3!!!
Like I said, our rebounding numbers didn't jump up much when Walker came back. Mainly because he played a big amount of minutes, which took away from Jefferson's and Perkin's minutes. And even Raef's rebounding took a hit after Walker's return.
So what happens with Scalabrine's rebounding? Well here's what his numbers look like:
Scalabrine: 4.5 rpg in 21.6 min = .21/min = 10/48 min
Its still to be seen how much minutes Scalabrine will be getting. Jefferson and Perkins should see an increase in minutes this season, while Raef could see a decrease from his 27.5 min/game he had last season. Scalabrine could be the recipient of the minutes available from Blount's and Raef's decreased minutes. And since he's going to be playing a similar role to the one he played in New Jersey, his rebounding per minute should be roughly the same. So if he gets 15 minutes per game, he could roughly average about 3 - 4 rpg.
He and Raef wash each other out because they average nearly the same amount of boards per minute. Overall, the addition of Scalabrine to the team will not be as impactful on the boards as Jefferson and Perkins getting more minutes of playing time.
With Jefferson, Perkins, Raef, and Scalabrine getting the bulk of minutes at the 4 and 5, our overall frontcourt rebounding should be markedly improved over last year numbers--most likely to propell us much higher up the ladder.
But the froncourt is not the only positions we could see improvements in. Every bit counts and we have other positions which we could see rebounding improvents with. Ricky Davis was only pulling down .09 boards per game. Tony Allen was twice as efficient as that, pulling down .18 per minute. So if Allen plays 22 minutes per game, that'd be equivalent to rougly 4 rpg, an improvement of over a rebound per game. If we decrease Ricky's playing time by 5 minutes (which will be given to Tony), we only lose out half a board per game. So that's a positive improvement of more than half a board a game, which, as shown previously, is a big jump up the ladder.
Next, since we lose Payton, we lose out on his .09 rebs per minute. But we replace it with Delonte's .13 rebs per minute. Not that much of an improvement, but every bit counts.
Altogether, our bench is a much better rebounding unit than the one we had for most of last year. We no longer have McCarty and instead we have Reed and Gomes--both of whom are much stronger rebounders.
I'd be surprised if we don't rank among the top 12 in rebounds this coming season. To do that, all we need to do is grab 2 boards more per game than we did last year.
