Grizzlies need to work on better rebounding quickly
The Memphis Grizzlies finished preseason with a rebound rate of 45 percent, ranking 34th out of 30 NBA teams (yes, that's correct, we'll get to that in a moment).
First, let's define that term — rebound rate is the percentage, on average, of available rebounds that a team will get. Ideally that number is higher than 50 percent. The Grizzlies, though, are well below the norm, with a rate that puts them below all 29 other NBA teams and even a handful of the international teams that played against NBA teams in preseason. Thus, they're 34th out of 30. Not great. The only team over the last five preseasons to have a rebound rate lower than the Grizzlies was the 21-win Brooklyn Nets of 2015-16. Not being able to rebound portends very poorly for success.
Writing about preseason numbers is tough, because it's just very tricky to sort out the things that are truly reflective of a team's issues while ignoring the stuff that's a result of it just being preseason. Are veterans like Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Chandler Parsons, and others simply taking it easy during the exhibition season? It's hard to know for sure.
What is clear, though, is that this Grizzlies team is going to have to find more and better rebounding — whether that comes from individual improvement or lineup tweaks is a matter for J.B. Bickerstaff and his coaching staff to assess.
The Grizzlies were dead last in defensive rebounding percentage and second-worst in offensive rebounding per-
centage. They went through their final two preseason games grabbing a total of 4 offensive rebounds. Four offensive rebounds in 96 minutes — out of 78 missed shots, the Grizzlies got an offensive board on four of them.
Fourth-overall pick Jaren Jackson, Jr. played an entire game against Houston on Friday without getting a single rebound. He's ostensibly the power forward. Small forward Chandler Parsons grabbed just one rebound. The entire Grizzlies starting lineup combined for 18 rebounds against the Rockets while Houston's center Clint Capela picked up 13 rebounds by himself.
Because JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple didn't play, the Grizzlies experimented with a bigger group. Kyle Anderson, Parsons, and Jackson played the shooting guard, small forward, and power forward spots alongside Gasol and Conley. That is a very big, long lineup, with everyone except Conley at least 6-9 and possessing long arms. To grab so few boards with such a big group is especially tough to deal with, given the speed and athleticism sacrificed by playing them together.
Green looked lively in his preseason games, and his aggressiveness in getting rebounds might earn him minutes over touted rookie Jackson, especially alongside Gasol, who has never been an especially prolific rebounder. After getting no rebounds in 20 minutes in Friday's game, Jackson said, "That's my job, I've got to do that better, that's on me for sure. I've got to be more of a presence, I can't let balls that hit my hands go out of bounds, that's on me."
While those are admirable sentiments, for the built-to-win-now Grizzlies to actually, well, win now, those improvements will have to come very quickly.
Of the teams that played five preseason games (the majority of the league played five), only the Phoenix Suns took fewer shots than the Grizzlies. That's the damaging effect of not grabbing offensive rebounds yourself and allowing your opponents to do so. The Grizzlies allowed teams to get 62 offensive rebounds in their five preseason games, a total worse than all the teams that played five games and even worse than a couple that played six.
The Grizzlies' preseason performances were mediocre at best, with wins coming against an Atlanta team predicted to be among the league's worst and an Indiana team without its best players. The losses were comprehensive. Look no further than the glass for answers. If the Grizzlies can't figure out how to improve their rebounding, they'll have no chance to make the playoffs.