The Wood Shop: Intro and Rebounding Edition

When I think of a wood shop, I think of a place people go to contemplate things. Wood working happens in them for sure, but it’s really just a convenient hobby. It takes a long time to complete even a small piece of wood work, which means many trips to the wood shop to really examine the intricacies of life. This article is part of a continuing series where I take some aspect of this Cavalier team into the wood shop and hang out with it for a thousand or so words. My own personal Cavs Wood Shop. 

I have some experiences with wood shops. My brother has one in his basement. When I lived down the street from him, we would hang out in front of the work bench for hours at a time. There was a record player, and we would blast old metal albums. We would stack beer cans in time with the music, uttering only the most necessary words, or ridiculous words as the evening went on. And, occasionally, we would try to fix broken stuff in his house.

Sometimes, I’d hang out there by myself. I’d still just listen to music, but I’d often contemplate stuff going on in my workplace, in my relationship, or in the world. I’d kill hours of time just standing at that belly button height table. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in killing time in a work shop, getting to know myself. However, I’m alone in the depth I go with my thoughts. I’m the ultimate nitpicker. If I notice my girlfriend has left her bag on the dining room table, and she has previously told me that I can’t do that, you bet I’m going to push that issue until I’m begging to not sleep on the couch. I’m the same way with the Cavs. I work myself into a frenzy about them nightly. “We should have won by 45. There’s no way we’re title worthy pulling games out in the fourth quarter.” Seeing as the Cavs have now lost two games in a row, my panic level is rising. Now, they can only go 79-3.

When I take some part of this Cavs’ team to the wood shop, it’s not coming back without being picked apart. Teams need people acting like obsessive compulsives to examine them. They need people in their organizations who sit alone somewhere and proceed to unravel their entire sweater because they notice a loose thread, which they just have to pick at. After all, one loose thread means the sweater may be losing the ability to keep them warm. The Cavs are surely finding stuff to look at obsessively, as are the Warriors, Spurs and every other title contender. Finding little threads to tug at is what keeps these organizations improving.

Today, the Cavs’ rebounding gets to spend some time with me in the wood shop.

What The Simple Numbers Say

The Cavs are getting 46.8 boards a night, which is good for seventh in the league (it’s also just two rebounds away from the the team with the most rebounds in the NBA). Kevin Love is fourth out of all players in rebounding, sucking up 11.8 boards, while Tristan Thompson is 18th getting 9.1 a night. LeBron James grabs 6.7 boards a night, and he is ninth out of all eligible small forwards for rebounding. The team is grabbing 52.3% of all rebounds (6th in the league). It’s easy to look at those numbers, and say, “the Cavs are a quality rebounding team.”

Digging Deeper

However, the Cavs’ rebounding numbers are a little misleading. The NBA breaks rebounds down into contested ones and uncontested ones. Any contested rebound is one that occurs when an opposing player is within 3.5 feet of the ball. The Cavs are getting just 13.5 contested boards a night. That’s 20th in the league. Of all the contested rebounds they are faced with, they grab just 28.9% percent of them, 25th in the league.

The Cavs are indeed getting 52.3% of all the boards in a game, but….. This number is dealing with what percentage of total box score rebounds the Cavs typically get. The King’s Men actually don’t get that many rebounds when looking at the number of chances for a board they have per game. They inhale just 53.8% of all their defensive rebounding chances, which is 12th in the league.

The Truth Behind the Numbers

1. The Cavs get so many uncontested boards because they are able to field lineups where every player has to be guarded honestly. Most of the time, the Cavs have four guys on the floor who can shoot the 3-ball and run the floor, as LeBron, Kevin Love, and James Jones all play a decent amount of minutes at the four spot. Timofey Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, and Anderson Varejao are the only non three-shooters in the rotation, but they run straight to the other end of the court after a rebound and fill the lane. There is no sagging off or crashing the offensive boards against the Cavs, because playing against the Cavs down a man in transition is probably going to lead to a layup or easy three.

Rebounding is easier when opposing teams are only using 50% of their effort to go after the ball and the other 50% to stop guys from beating them down the floor.

2. Kevin Love and Mo Williams have a penchant for throwing long outlet passes. It’s awesome, since I like getting to see football on days other than Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. The rest of the team likes to get the rebound and quickly pass the rock to the ball handler to run in transition. To throw bombs or get the ball ahead quickly, players have to look up court before they grab the rebound. This is something they can’t really do while boxing out.  Once they do get the rebound they are often times stripped because they’re unaware of opponents nearby. Fortunately for the Cavs, they have the rebounding talent to often get away with not boxing out.

3. The Wine & Gold allow 10 offensive boards a game, which is 11th in the league. That’s not amazing, but it’s not terrible either. However, if you watch a lot of the offensive boards teams get against them, they’re very wide open ones because guys aren’t even attempting to body their man or are just looking up the court. Love and TT aren’t getting out-muscled when they actually lay their booties into opposing bigs chasing the ball. Forgetting fundamental aspects of basketball is the primary reason the Cavs’ contested rebound percentage is so poor.  This problem can be remedied by not looking for the quick pass, but the Cavs probably don’t want to lose that feature of their offense.

4. It also doesn’t help that opposing wing players blow by the Cavalier guards. This forces the Cavalier big man to rotate over,  leaving the opposing center open for an easy lay in or offensive rebound. The Cavalier guards often forget to bump the uncovered and rolling big away from the hoop to prevent that deadly chain of events. And, even when they do, an opposing big is still at an advantage just because of sheer size.

Moving forward this season, the Cavs should be able to address the issue of opposing guard penetration. The bigs on the team might need to let Mo Williams and Matthew Dellavedova just stay on their man around screens, instead of helping. Making a shot with a guy on your shoulder the whole time is still difficult. If the Cavs continue to have their bigs contest opposing guards at the rim, the Cavalier player on the weak side of the floor needs to crash down into the uncovered big and help their own big man fight for the rebound.

The Final Verdict

While it is false to say the Cavs are a poor rebounding team, it’s probably a little too early to say they’re a great one. If the team can find a balance between getting out in transition and still boxing out, they’ll be on the road to rebounding supremacy. And, they may save a sweater or two in the process. The Cavs don’t have to be a great rebounding team though. Looking at basic regular season rebounding stats for the 2014 title winning Spurs and 2015 champion Warriors, shows both of those teams were above average, but not excellent, rebounding teams. While I often want to throw stuff at the TV when an opponent sucks up an easy offensive board over Love and TT, I appreciate all the breakaway dunks too much. I won’t harbor any resentment if the rebounding remains the same the rest of the season, as long as I can call it what it is: “slightly above average.”