Can someone explain why the first 2 seasons of Blake Griffin's career were his best rebounding years?

[Purch]

Genuinely curious about it.
He recorded 12.1 Rebounds a game in his rookie year, then he recorded 10.9 In his second year. He'd never against record double digit rebounds in his career.


Was this just a DeAndre Jordan factor?

Did it have to do with him playing on the outside more?

Was it beause of a decline in athleticism?

[TheWitcher]

All of those factors you mentioned (DJ being the most prominent) plus the Clippers during the CP era had some pretty good rebounders even off the bench. It was more that he didn’t need to.

[Pythagoras]

All of those factors you mentioned (DJ being the most prominent) plus the Clippers during the CP era had some pretty good rebounders even off the bench. It was more that he didn’t need to.

Beat me to it. The development of DJ was the biggest reason.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

The best of Blake’s Dunking game was heavily based on jumping. Blakes jumping steadily declined. He was wearing out his body.
A lot of guys do their best jumping when they are young.

[TheWitcher]

All of those factors you mentioned (DJ being the most prominent) plus the Clippers during the CP era had some pretty good rebounders even off the bench. It was more that he didn’t need to.

Beat me to it. The development of DJ was the biggest reason.

Those Clippers teams were really fun to watch during the regular season, specially with Ralph on the mic. “OH ME OH MY”

[Purch]

All of those factors you mentioned (DJ being the most prominent) plus the Clippers during the CP era had some pretty good rebounders even off the bench. It was more that he didn’t need to.

I suspected that, would end up being the reason. It's just a rare thing to see over the course of someone's career

[cupcakesnake]

It wasn't just a matter of personnel. Everyone saying DJ but he played over 25 mpg every year Blake was there and those minutes were stable across Blake's first 3 years in the league when you see the reboudning drop.

Blake started becoming more perimeter oriented as early as year 2. In year 1, Blake took only 16% of his total field goals outside of 16 feet. In year 2, that number rose to 24%. By year 5 it was at 40%, and after that was when Blake started getting chipped away by injuries.

I know, offensive shot distribution doesn't explain the defensive rebounding numbers dropping, but from the moment Blake came into the NBA, there was a development narrative about how his rim attacking style wasn't sustainable. Remember that Blake missed his rookie season and then began his career in 2011: Derrick Rose's MVP year and subsequent ACL injuries. I remember it being common discourse that Blake needed to diversify his offense to have a real career. So we got 1 year of rugged power forward Blake, and after that it was all about Blake becoming a more complete player. The sad irony is that Blake's transformation went really well, but he kept getting hurt anyways. We got almost no overlap of physically dominant Blake and skilled offensive hub Blake. I remember watching him live his one healthy year in Detroit (2019) and thinking: wow, Blake has really figured out how to weaponize his shooting and passing from the high post and the perimeter. He looked like a mini-Dirk out there sometimes. Little did I realize that season was the end of Blake being an all-star level player at just 29-years-old.

[Sofia]

Someone else can find the stats on it, but Doc Rivers teams don’t tend to crash offensive boards as much as other teams. I believe the pace slowed down a little too as CP3 moved in. Add that to the emergence of DJ as the starter who replaced Kaman, and the rebounds just weren’t as readily available.

[og15]

First thing is that he played 38 mpg as a rookie. His first two seasons had similar rebound rate, but his minutes were down his second session to about 36.

By his third season, he started working on his perimeter game, started putting more effort on defense and DJ was playing more, though Reggie Evans was there in 11-12 grabbing a lot of rebounds already.

When Doc came, they emphasized more of DJ grabbing the rebounds and Blake getting back on defense, he also had to play more on the perimeter and expand his perimeter game as him and DJ clogging the lane was terrible for offense.

Doc had embraced the tank offensive rebounds for transition defense strategy that Pop for example and some others had been doing as well, so only DJ consistently stayed on the offensive glass, everyone else got back, and DJ with his speed and athleticism could still beat opposing C's back if he was lingering for boards.

[baldur]

He peaked in his rookie season. That's why.

[Purch]

It wasn't just a matter of personnel. Everyone saying DJ but he played over 25 mpg every year Blake was there and those minutes were stable across Blake's first 3 years in the league when you see the reboudning drop.

Blake started becoming more perimeter oriented as early as year 2. In year 1, Blake took only 16% of his total field goals outside of 16 feet. In year 2, that number rose to 24%. By year 5 it was at 40%, and after that was when Blake started getting chipped away by injuries.

I know, offensive shot distribution doesn't explain the defensive rebounding numbers dropping, but from the moment Blake came into the NBA, there was a development narrative about how his rim attacking style wasn't sustainable. Remember that Blake missed his rookie season and then began his career in 2011: Derrick Rose's MVP year and subsequent ACL injuries. I remember it being common discourse that Blake needed to diversify his offense to have a real career. So we got 1 year of rugged power forward Blake, and after that it was all about Blake becoming a more complete player. The sad irony is that Blake's transformation went really well, but he kept getting hurt anyways. We got almost no overlap of physically dominant Blake and skilled offensive hub Blake. I remember watching him live his one healthy year in Detroit (2019) and thinking: wow, Blake has really figured out how to weaponize his shooting and passing from the high post and the perimeter. He looked like a mini-Dirk out there sometimes. Little did I realize that season was the end of Blake being an all-star level player at just 29-years-old.

I remember during that ROTY race between Wall and Griffin, I really thought they would dominate the league for years, but both ultimately ended up being pretty injury prone.

I definitely agree with you that his athletic peak and skills peak didn't get much overlap at all.

[KyletheDingbat]

I went to a bunch of games in Blake's Clipper years and I can say, he got way more timid in his second year, and wouldn't really shake it til maybe the '15 season. His rookie year he was a wrecking ball. After that, most often when he got the ball he'd pause, standing straight up, and seem to not know what to do with it. It was super frustrating to watch, because when he just caught and went, he was destructive. I think that hesitancy tied into his rebounding.

[HotelVitale]

In addition to lots of the things people said above, wanted to mention that players frequently peak or reach their plateau for rebounding early. Unlike other things like points or assists that tend to peak in the middle of players' careers.

Makes sense--rebounding is mostly about size, athleticism, effort, and positioning, and generally speaking players are at their athletic and effort peaks earlier on, plus the mental part of rebounding is simpler and requires less seasoning than other things. E.g. it's a lot less reliant on mastering the complex timing of the NBA than scoring or passing is.

It also just depends on role, how much you're expected to focus just on grabbing boards as your main role, or if that's a part of your job in the team scheme. Other folks have said that better than I can for Blake's case, but every player sees that shift at least somewhat throughout their careers, and players will sometimes have very irregular rebounding #s as a result. (Like averaging 10 per 36 one year and 14 two years later, and then vice versa.)

[og15]

He peaked in his rookie season. That's why.

As a player? Not even close, terrible take

[Invictus88]

Because he wasn't broken at that point...?

P.S.
He played more MPG his first two years than he did for any other season in his career. He had comparable production per minutes played in years 3 and 4 and then was never really healthy for long from that point forward.

[jokeboy86]

All of those factors you mentioned (DJ being the most prominent) plus the Clippers during the CP era had some pretty good rebounders even off the bench. It was more that he didn’t need to.

Beat me to it. The development of DJ was the biggest reason.

Those Clippers teams were really fun to watch during the regular season, specially with Ralph on the mic. “OH ME OH MY”

Don't like Ralph Lawler after he openly took a shot at Giannis out of nowhere for no reason. For a play-by-play guy to just randomly hate like that was unseemly.

[og15]

I went to a bunch of games in Blake's Clipper years and I can say, he got way more timid in his second year, and wouldn't really shake it til maybe the '15 season. His rookie year he was a wrecking ball. After that, most often when he got the ball he'd pause, standing straight up, and seem to not know what to do with it. It was super frustrating to watch, because when he just caught and went, he was destructive. I think that hesitancy tied into his rebounding.

His rebound rate in year one and two were almost identical, 16.4 per 100 vs 16.1 per 100, actually even grabbed more offensive rebound in the second season 4.9/100 to 4.5/100, but he played fewer minutes 38 down to 36.2 and the team had some more guys like Reggie Evans competing for rebounds.

Similarly his scoring rate actually the same, but again, minutes and pace. Rookie year 30.7 pts/100, sophomore year, 30.8 pts/100.

[dhsilv2]

His DRB% was 26.9 and 25.1 in his first two years. his next best was 2016 at 22.3. So yeah he did drop off as a defensive rebounder. So the people with the per 100's or whatever else...he did drop off.

DJ makes perfectly good sense though.

[ken6199]

Blake was also playing more leak out in transition offense because his improved ball handling, and with DJ being a pretty reliable defensive rebounder.

[og15]

His DRB% was 26.9 and 25.1 in his first two years. his next best was 2016 at 22.3. So yeah he did drop off as a defensive rebounder. So the people with the per 100's or whatever else...he did drop off.

DJ makes perfectly good sense though.

His second season, his DRB% went down, then his ORB% went up slightly, hence TRB% was 18.6 vs 17.8 which is a general year to year type fluctuation.

After that, DJ's more prominent role,.playing more on the perimeter, everyone but DJ tanking offensive rebounds for transition defense, implementing Blake leaking out and sealing his man at the front of the rim in transition and leaking to 3/4 court to push the ball, more focus on man and help defense vs just going to get the board. All those things played some part in his rebounding dropping.