Boston Celtics Myth: Rebounding

There is no doubting that the Boston Celtics are one of the most improved teams in the NBA this year and that has been on both ends. They are one of the highest scoring teams in the league and have maintained one of the best defensive efficiencies in the NBA. Another area the Celtics appear to be improved in is rebounding. The Celtics play a lot of small ball and lack a dominating interior force. Jared Sullinger has been a strong rebounder but other than that it is a weakness of their bigs.

Despite lacking the strong rebounders, the Celtics appear to be one of the best rebounding teams in the league as their 45 rebounds per game ranks 6th in the NBA. The Celtics took one of the more drastic jumps from last year as they were middle of the pack when it came to rebounding. Did Sullinger really make enough of a difference to cause such a drastic improvement. Unfortunately, the answer is no.

The Celtics may collect the 6th most rebounds per game in the NBA but digging a little deeper reveals how the Celtics are not only not a strong rebounding team, but they may have regressed from last year. The first revealing statistic is their rebounding differential. 45 per game ranks 6th in the NBA but that is still not good enough to make them a positive rebounding team. The Celtics give up 46.2 rebounds per game for a net rating of -1.2, and that ranks all the way down at 20th in the NBA.

The Celtics collect a lot of rebounds but when it comes to beating their opponents to those rebounds, they have not been successful. In addition to have a negative net rating, the Celtics rebounding rate of 49.4 is tied for 19th in the league. The Celtics have the volume but it ends there, as teams continually do a better job of rebounding against them in games.

How is it then, that the team that collects the 6th most rebounds per game is one of the worse rebounding teams in the NBA? Pace. The Celtics play with the third fastest pace in the NBA and that inflates all their stats. Pace explains why one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA is one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA. By pushing the pace the Celtics continually have more possessions per game and that creates many more opportunities to collect rebounds, for both teams.

The fact of the matter is that the Celtics still are not a strong rebounding team. Sullinger has drastically improved their offensive rebounding but don’t let the inflated rebounding numbers fool you into thinking that the Celtics have improved that gap in their interior. In terms of net rating, the Celtics are actually slightly worse than last year.

Brad Stevens has used his three guard lineup a lot more this season and that has caused them to regress. However, it is almost identical as the Celtics gave up only 0.9 more rebounds than they collected last year. It may not be fair to say the Celtics are necessarily a worse rebounding team because of the impact offensive boards are having for them. That being said, the Celtics are far from an improved rebounding team and are even further from a good rebounding team league wide.

Once again, this is to be expected. The Celtics are a small ball team whose defense has often been about overcoming a lack of an interior presence. The Celtics have committed to the fast paced small ball mentality and being a poor rebounding team is not something they need to get caught up on. The Celtics would certainly benefit from adding stronger rebounders. Unfortunately, that simply is not an option at this point and the Celtics do not need to make any adjustments in order to make up for their poor rebounding because of the potential impact that will have on the rest of their game.

Pace has been the way the Celtics have overcome the majority of their offensive issues this season but it has also created the illusion that the Celtics could be a top rebounding team. Being 6th in the NBA in rebounds per game is odd to argue against but having the third fastest pace in the NBA will make all of their statistics that are not based on per possessions less revealing than they appear.

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The Celtics are not letting themselves get killed on the boards. They are not in a situation where rebounding is one of the crucial missing pieces and because of that they will accept the high volume of rebounds, even though they will more often than not be a worse rebounding team than their opponent.