The Rebound Efficiency Theory

Most basketball statistic analysts would measure a team’s rebounding ability by rebound margins, which is the average rebounds per game subtracted by opponent average rebounds per game. Although effective to some point, I believe there is a better way to gauge such statistics. I believe in the Rebound Efficiency. Using the number of rebounds divided by the rebound opportunity, I have devised a more accurate way of analyzing team rebounding comparisons. The rebound opportunity is accumulated by adding the number of missed field goals by the team and its opponents. Dividing the total rebounds by this number will give a value between 0 and 1. This method of analyzing team rebounding can be utilized in other ways to figure out offensive and defensive rebounding efficiencies. I believe this is superior to rebounding margins since it measures rebounding efficiency independent of field goal percentage (as we know, teams tend to get more rebounds when missing many shots). Let’s see the top NBA rebounding teams using the two different approaches as of February 25, 2004. Rebound Margins:

	Team		Reb	Opp Reb	Reb Margin

1	Utah		40.881	36.356	4.525

2	Cleveland	46.534	42.431	4.103

3	San Antonio	45.702	42.246	3.456

4	Houston		43.193	39.807	3.386

5	L.A. Clippers	44.357	41.000	3.357

6	Detroit		43.400	41.067	2.333

7	Portland	41.860	39.737	2.123

8	Indiana		42.105	40.456	1.649

9	Dallas		45.500	44.250	1.250

10	Minnesota	42.034	41.259	0.775

11	Miami		41.224	40.483	0.741

12	New York	42.305	41.661	0.644

13	New Orleans	42.667	42.632	0.035

Rebound Efficiency:

					Opp	Opp		Opp	Reb

	Team		Fg	Fg Att	Fg	Fg Att	Reb	Reb	Opportunity	Reb Eff

1	San Antonio	1945	4501	1804	4472	2605	2408	5224		0.4987

2	Utah		1947	4432	1866	4267	2412	2145	4886		0.4937

3	Cleveland	2042	4788	2082	4817	2699	2461	5481		0.4924

4	L.A. Clippers	1948	4535	2100	4577	2484	2296	5064		0.4905

5	Dallas		2216	4924	2125	4663	2548	2478	5246		0.4857

6	Houston		1874	4286	1778	4467	2462	2269	5101		0.4827

7	Indiana		1900	4425	1836	4288	2400	2306	4977		0.4822

8	Detroit		1984	4650	1987	4727	2604	2464	5406		0.4817

9	Portland	2045	4535	2066	4552	2386	2265	4976		0.4795

10	Miami		1898	4487	1900	4360	2391	2348	5049		0.4736

11	New York	2058	4647	2009	4724	2496	2458	5304		0.4706

12	Minnesota	2178	4647	1955	4682	2438	2393	5196		0.4692

13	New Orleans	1958	4639	1982	4500	2432	2430	5199		0.4678

Rebound efficiency compared to opponent rebound efficiency:

				Opp

	Team		Reb Eff	Reb Eff	Ratio*

1	Utah		0.4937	0.4390	1.1245

2	Cleveland	0.4924	0.4490	1.0967

3	Houston		0.4827	0.4448	1.0851

4	L.A. Clippers	0.4905	0.4534	1.0819

5	San Antonio	0.4987	0.4609	1.0818

6	Detroit		0.4817	0.4558	1.0568

7	Portland	0.4795	0.4552	1.0534

8	Indiana		0.4822	0.4633	1.0408

9	Dallas		0.4857	0.4724	1.0282

10	Minnesota	0.4692	0.4605	1.0188

11	Miami		0.4736	0.4650	1.0183

12	New York	0.4706	0.4634	1.0155

13	New Orleans	0.4678	0.4674	1.0008

*Ratio=Reb Eff divided by Opp Reb Eff