Defenseless. A quick look ...

As part 1 of our "Defensive Boot Camp" series we will look at defensive rebounding. In their first game back from the aforementioned "Boot Camp", coach Eddie Jordan elected to go with a small starting line-up. He went with Lou and Green as an undersized backcourt, and Thad and Sam as his frontcourt. Interesting defensive choices to say the least.

On the defensive glass there were not that many opportunities, given the Jazz shot .522 overall and .545 from 3pts. The Sixers grabbed 39 defensive boards and surrendered only 6 offensive boards... so overall a great 87% rebounding rate. So on the surface a good night on the defensive boards. But looking at the individual numbers brings up some issues:

Defensive Rebounds:
Dalembert 9
Iguodala 5
Green 4
Speights 3
Holiday 2
Brand 1
Ivey 1
Young 0

Sam, as usual, rebounded well. Its a shame he acts as if fouling out is only a theoretical issue. he picked up 5 fouls in exactly 9 minutes of playing time. Also, the Sixers got tremendous rebounding from their starting SG and SF (Green and Iguodala.) But Brand, Speights and Young combined for 4 defensive rebounds.

Hard to slam Thad in a game where he was the only player with a positive +/- (+10), but this is a major issue if E.J. and the organization really see Thad as their starting PF. On top of this, Brand, who has publicly called out Speights for his defense (justifiably), has been a poor defensive rebounder this season.

I will let the numbers speak for themselves. Defensive rebounding percentage is an estimate of what % of available defensive rebounds a player grabs. In general 18% is good and 24% or above is great. Elite defensive rebounders like Duncan and Boozer are 26% for career. Rodaman was 29.6% Most top defensive rebounders are 24% or better. For example, Sam is 24.6% for his career.

Defensive rebounding percentage this season:
Sam: 27.4% (somewhat inflated by playing next to Thad, so less competition)
Brand: 15.9% (Down from career average of 19.1%)
Speights: 18.1%
Young: 11.4% (career 12.3- somewhat artificially lowered given plays 1/2 minutes at SF)
Iguodala 17.6 (career 14.4)

For his career Brand is a good but somewhat over-rated defensive rebounder. His career defensive rebounding % of 19.1% (range 18.2-19.9%) is good, but he's never been an elite defensive rebounder by this metric. Thad, on the other hand has no business playing PF. You cannot have your PF rebounding at a lower rate than the average NBA SF. The only saving grace is that Iguodala has been a beast on the boards considering he is splitting minutes at SG and SF.

Stats per Basketball reference.