Monday, November 09, 2009

Season-Long Theme: Rebounding

Last season, the Hawks were a poor rebounding team, below-average on both the offensive and defensive glass. So far this year they haven't made any strides on the offensive glass but the team's defensive rebounding (despite consecutive poor performances @Sacramento and @Charlotte last week) is far ahead of last year's pace and better than the league average.

Atlanta Hawks: Rebounding 2008-09 vs. 2009-10

YearDR%LgAvgRankOR%LgAvgRank
2008-0971.673.324th26.026.719th
2009-1074.673.710th24.726.324th

Significant individual improvement on the defensive glass has been achieved (thus far) from Al Horford (individual DR% up from 25.0% to 27.7%), Joe Johnson (up from 10.5% to 15.9%), Mike Bibby (up from 10.3% to 12.7%), and Maurice Evans (up from 9.9% to 11.7%).

The improved defensive rebounding hasn't helped the Hawks appreciably in terms of defensive efficiency (They're currently 18th in the league.) but I suspect it has had some role in the Hawks increasing both the number of possessions (up 5.6 per game over last year) and the team's offensive efficiency (They're currently 4th in the league.)

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