Identical to final 12 months, the Warriors — with a median top of 6-foot-4 — are the shortest workforce within the NBA.
And identical to final 12 months, they’re proving dimension isn’t every thing with regards to rebounding.
After main the league in rebounds per recreation final season with 46.7 per recreation, the Warriors rank second within the class this 12 months at 48.4, behind solely Houston (49.7). They’re seventh in offensive rebounding charge and fifth in second-chance factors.
It’s nonetheless early within the season, however persevering with final 12 months’s anomaly makes it a development. The Warriors have discovered a workaround to being undersized on the glass.
They’re simply not fairly certain what it’s.
“Well I think some of it is we play fast and so we’re trying to generate a game that rewards speed and quickness,” Steve Kerr stated on Thursday.
“I think we have a quick team at a lot of positions. We’ve got some smart players. Draymond is always going to be part of a good rebounding group. Not necessarily as the guy who’s getting the ball, but boxing out, being in the right spot. Being in the right place defensively that leads to a tough shot, that maybe doesn’t end up with that many angles for offensive boards.”
“I don’t have an exact answer, but I think some of those things play in.”
Parsing via all these elements doesn’t clarify the phenomenon, both. Golden State actually does have workforce velocity — and so they’re undoubtedly faster than they had been final 12 months with Chris Paul, Klay Thompson and Dario Saric — however they’re not the quickest workforce within the league. They rank seventh in tempo and twentieth in possessions per recreation; there aren’t extra rebounding alternatives for the Warriors in a given recreation primarily based on their play fashion.
Inexperienced, in the meantime, is averaging his lowest rebounds per recreation determine since 2014-15. However Kerr’s level stands: Solely informal followers would ever use fundamental counting stats to attempt to seize Inexperienced’s impression. He’s at all times in the fitting spot defensively, and is likely one of the greatest within the league at boxing out, combining his physique positioning, power and hustle.
Inexperienced has even taught younger heart Trayce Jackson-Davis a trick or two.
“A tip that I’ve kind of stolen from Draymond a little bit is boxing my guy out and try to tip it out to one of our guys,” Jackson-Davis stated. “Just rebounding in numbers.”
However even in Inexperienced’s 2016-17 Defensive Participant of the 12 months season, the Warriors had been tied for seventh in rebounding per recreation. Not top-two.
A minimum of with this season particularly, Kevon Looney is an apparent X-factor.
Looney, shedding about 20 kilos this offseason by fasting day by day till the afternoon is nimbler. And after falling out of Golden State’s rotation for lengthy stretches final 12 months, he has been as efficient as ever.
The ten-year veteran already has 5 double-digit rebound video games; he had 11 in 74 video games final season. Looney ranks second in offensive rebounds per recreation regardless of enjoying 16.1 minutes per recreation. No person has a better rebounding proportion (22.2%) and he scores as many second-chance factors per recreation (2.8) as Zion Williamson.
In opposition to Dallas earlier this week, Looney created a myriad of additional possessions with 9 offensive rebounds.
“It’s kind of changed my approach to how I go for offensive rebounds,” Looney stated of reducing weight. “Over the last couple years, I was able to push people around. I was a little stronger, able to move guys. Going through preseason, I was trying to figure out what’s going to be my best way — using my quickness or being more physical. Trying to find that combination of doing both depending on who’s guarding me, what center I’m going up against. And I’ve been figuring it out.”
Golden State’s rebounding philosophy goes one thing like this: Gang rebound to shut possessions and crash from the corners selectively on the opposite finish.
That’s not precisely innovation that excites.
However the Warriors have made it work. Looney is a rebounding famous person, and Inexperienced being a generational defender helps loads. Brandin Podziemski is an elite rebounder for his place, as is Gary Payton II. Andrew Wiggins (91st percentile in offensive rebounding at his place) has performed with power, as has Jonathan Kuminga.
Taking part in a 12 or 13-man rotation has saved everybody contemporary and bouncy. Should you’re solely anticipated to play in five-minute bursts, it is sensible gamers would give extra constant effort, even on hustle performs and rebounding.
Shot diets on each ends of the court docket may be variables. Lengthy rebounds, which might go 50/50, are extra frequent with groups that shoot a whole lot of 3-pointers. The Warriors take the eighth-most 3s within the league, and pressure the Seventeenth-most, per Cleansing The Glass. Neither quantity is a smoking gun.
It’s additionally potential that Golden State’s rebounding prowess fades away. Rating twenty third in defensive rebounding proportion is a crimson flag. Their early numbers could possibly be juiced by enjoying in opposition to weak opponents (Utah, Washington, Portland) or groups with accidents (Chet Holmgren and the Thunder, Steven Adams with Houston, the Celtics with out Kristaps Porzingis).
With the entire signature early wins, Steph Curry clutch moments, spectacular depth and revamped protection, Golden State’s rebounding prowess has flown underneath the radar. However it’s all associated, and sustaining the work on the glass might be key in sustaining the remaining.
Even when what it takes to take care of it’s considerably of a thriller.
