cupcakesnake wrote:I think the efficiency concerns about Angel Rees are overblown in direct proportion to her rebounding prowess, because she rebounds so many of her own misses. So lots of those misses contributing to her poor efficiency aren't damaging, because possession is maintained (or she scores right after). That means a couple of her rebounds are also empty stats. I've said it before somewhere on this forum: to understand her impact, it makes more sense to think of her as someone shooting 47% fg and averaging 11 rebounds.
Doing the rough math, she would have to have taken 71 less shots than she has this year to get to 47% shooting (because we assume she ends a possession with a score either way, so total makes stay the same, we have to get FGA down to increase efficiency)
We assume these are all on putbacks, she's taken in total 277 shots within the restricted area this year, 127 makes. In this scenario we take 74 shots away (and 74 rebounds too, but we'll get to that), that puts her at 127-203, or 62.6% within the restricted area, which is birght between Kelsey Plum (62.5%) and Diana Taurasi (62.7%)
Which would be really good. Would bump her up to .539 TS which is pretty solid, just a tick under Chennedy Carter (.540)
However, this would halve her ORB, from 167 to 93. Total rebounds from 434 to 360, or 2.8 ORB a game and 10.9 total rebounds per game, which would put her on pace to break the record, if A'ja didn't average 12.1 a game this year. Would also mean she'd be tied for 3rd in ORB
How much that would help her case, I don't know. Cause like you said, she's breaking records this year. I think objectively if she were to have done that, she would be a better basketball player, but in terms of winning awards and hype, it would have been less because her case revolves entirely around the rebounding. Taking that away, even to be a better overall player, would damage her case more than help it.