Strength, persistence key to Adams’ offensive-rebounding run
It takes athleticism. To grab the offensive rebounds he does, Steven
Adams needs to be able to to jump. But it’s more than that.
Positioning and relentlessness and a rare physical strength all contribute to the Thunder center’s massive offensive rebounding numbers, which were piling up even before the seven he grabbed in a 114-90 win against the Lakers on Wednesday.
“There’s not many guys that physically can match him in strength as well as athletically jump with him,” teammate Paul George said. “He’s in a category of his own, obviously.”
The 7-foot, 255-pound Adams is averaging 5.1 offensive rebounds per game this season, the most in the NBA. He rebounds 17 percent of Oklahoma City’s misses, also tops in the league.
For all the physical gifts that requires, those numbers also owe something to Adams’ mentality. As Thunder coach Billy
Donovan noted on Wednesday, for Adams to put up those numbers, he has to consistently crash the glass thanklessly.
“More often than not,” Donovan said, circumstance will deny Adams will an offensive rebounding opportunity.
“The ball may go in the basket, it may not bounce in his vicinity. But I think the effort and the persistence to keep going is what’s really made him dominant the last week or so.”
Adams has had at least five offensive rebounds in four of the Thunder’s past five games. He’s averaging 7.3 offensive boards per game over the past three games, grabbing at least seven in each.
The Thunder has won each of those past three games, and the team has grabbed at least 31 percent of the available offensive rebounds in that stretch. Against the Lakers, OKC secured a whopping 46.7 percent of available offensive rebounds.
Adams grabbed 28.3 percent of them by himself, the sixth time this season his offensive rebounding percentage has topped 25 percent.
That kind of effort affords some offensive freedom to George, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony.
“It feels (like) we can take any shot we want, knowing Steve’s gonna go get it,” George said. “We feel that. I feel that, Russ feels that, Melo feels that. It puts us a in better rhythm knowing that there’s a guy that’s gonna — whether it’s a good or bad shot we take, it’ll possibly gonna end up as a basket anyways with Steve down there. It allows us to be more aggressive.” Melo adjusting
For nine seasons, Anthony was a small forward. That was his role in Denver and at the start of his tenure in New York.
But twice with the Knicks, in 2013 and 2014, he played the majority of his minutes at power forward. In his first season with the Thunder — his 15th overall — he’s made a seismic shift from small forward.
According to BasketballReference.com, Anthony has logged 89 percent of his minutes this season at power forward, 11 percent more minutes there than in any other season.
Still, Anthony said, his basketball life isn’t so different.
As long as he knows the opponent and knows that “my teammates got my back on what we’re trying to do on the defensive end,” the adjustment isn’t that significant.
That’s in part because of how the game has changed, Anthony said. There aren’t nearly as many power forwards banging in the post as there were when he came into the NBA.
“Only a couple of those guys in the league,” Anthony said. “I think now it’s more stretch fours, guys spacing out, guys catching it, attacking. For me it’s just more (knowing) personnel. The game is different, the schemes are a little bit different. But for me, I think I’m fine with it.”