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Last season here is where the Thunder stood rebounding the ball:

2010-11
ORB: .274 (10th)
DRB: .736 (League Average)

Here's how we look this season

2011-12
ORB: .239 (25th)
DRB: .710 (26th)

We've gone from a good rebounding team (those 2010-11 numbers were better after the Perkins trade) to one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. So, who are the culprits?

Kendrick Perkins TRB: 12.4% (2012), 18.7% (2011), 16.4% (career)
Serge Ibaka TRB: 13.8% (2012), 16.4% (2011), 16.5% (career)
Nick Collison TRB: 11.1% (2012), 12.1% (2011), 15.6% (career)
Nazr Mohammed TRB: 13.4% (2012), 17.2% (2011), 17.3% (career)

To put this into perspective, Hall of Fame center Byron Mullens is sporting a 13.1% TRB at the moment. He would be our second best rebounding big by the numbers at the moment. Every big man on the roster is experiencing a career low TRB. Nick Collison has been declining for years so another decline was expected. Nazr is ancient and bigs are prone to sudden decline in productivity on the boards late in their careers. But Perkins and Ibaka are totally out of the blue and difficult to explain, especially since they play with each other a lot.

Let's examine this more closely. Here are the 20 most used lineups on the Thunder: http://www.82games.com/1112/1112OKC2.HTM

You can see the rebounding percentages there. The starting lineup (with Ibaka / Perkins) is one of the worst rebounding lineups we are using, with 45% rebounding rate. A decrease of 9% from last season using the same measurement! This seems to suggest that there is something going on with the players, and this is not some issue with lineup management. You do not see the same thing with the starting unit + James Harden. The rebounding rate for that lineup is 8% better this season. So it's tough to say exactly what's going on, or if it's just a fluke.

But the bottom line is that the team has sucked rebounding the ball, and every front court player is experiencing terrible TRB numbers overall. The Thunder are 4th in the league in opponent shooting, but only 17th in overall defense due in large part to the team's inability to secure defensive rebounds.

My first response is it's a bit flukey, and winning has a way of hiding deficiencies. With an unexpected loss in Washington now is a good time for the coaching staff to get everyone to focus back on rebounding.

The schedule is so condensed and since both are main culprits in this years decline, it's difficult to advocate playing Perkins and Ibaka more minutes in an effort to try and improve the rebounding.

It's hard to explain no doubt. The weird thing is I remember our rebounding was stellar vs the Lakers in the 2010 playoffs with Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic as our bigs, so maybe it's an effort thing.

Don't have any answers, but here are possibilities...

- We are playing soft and not putting bodies on guys
- Perkins is adjusting to the change in his body and how to use it. Maybe he is trying to rely on his athleticism now?
- Collison is declining, but I doubt that since he still gets a lot of offensive rebounds.
- short training camp has our guys confused on where to be after a shot goes up(doubtful)

whatever the problem is, it needs to be corrected before the playoffs. We won't win many series rebounding the way we are.

I think there is somewhat a link between our excellent oppponent FG% defense and the rebounding issues. I also think that this should come back a little over the next few weeks.

dream_catcher_9 wrote:It's hard to explain no doubt. The weird thing is I remember our rebounding was stellar vs the Lakers in the 2010 playoffs with Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic as our bigs, so maybe it's an effort thing.

yeah but back then Russ, Thabo and Durant used to crash the boards every time a shot went up from an opposing player. I think this is just a fluke though, rebounding wont be a problem for this team.

KP and Ibaka needs more mins to play. It's sad our two big men on our FC can't grab a off board....

We're now 1st in eFG% defense.

Problem is we're:

27th in forcing turnovers
25th in defensive rebounding
19th in not fouling.

Sum it up and you get 11th in DRTG.

Rebounding should definitely pick up. Thats an area we used to be good at even with Green and Nenad and we imporved (obviously) with Ibaka and Perk moving to the starting 5.
However, we lack a really strong rebounder, who can get 10 rebs consistantly.
Now, KD has the highest rebound average per game at 7.2
Second is Ibaka with 6.4 and then Perk with 5.8
I definitely think Ibaka and Perk should both average 8 rebs per game each, dont really know though why they are that much below.
However, like I said, I think that should pick up soon.