Offensive Rebounding

I recently came to a conclusion that I consider to being a game changer. It's obviously nothing new to many other people, but for me it has become something that has changed my thoughts on offense. Last year in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns led the league in Field Goal Percentage. They shot a blistering %49.7 from the field. This was 7 percentage points higher than the last team in the league (New Jersey). This tells me one thing, In the highest level of the sport I love, not one team made more shots than they took. This is even more apparent in College Basketball. There are 347 Division I teams. Out of those teams, only 2 shot above %50 (IUPUI at %50.4 and Syracuse at %51.6). Just to put that in perspective, that is less than %0.6 of all DI teams make more shots than they miss. This is by no means an attack at the percentage of shooting in College or the NBA or even an indictment on shot selection. What I take away from this statistic is that no matter what level you are coaching at, your opponent and your team will most likely miss more shots than they take.
Now comes the application to our season last year. Though not championship by any stretch, we got into the Utah state record book twice last year. Both of these were in the rebounding category. Against Milford in our season opener, we had 57 rebounds as a team. 25 of these rebounds were offensive. We had 3 players get 10 or more rebounds and our entire starting 5 had at least 7. Initial thoughts was that we were playing against St. Mary's school for the vertically Challenged. Milford's Center was a very skilled 6'7 and though not a huge guard line, their front court was as big, if not bigger than the one we put on the floor.
In a similar game later against Maple Mountain, we tallied 53. We had 7 games of 45 rebounds or more and averaged 35. We as a team averaged 12 offensive rebounds per game.
Great Coaching, right? Actually, as much as I would like to take responsibility for this, we never once worked on rebounding. And this is not to say that my assistant coaches who were in charge of our big men didn't work on rebounding, but we definitely did not spend time on it. I was recently watching a clinic involving some legendary coaches at the University of Florida. Their topic was "What I wish I had known and what I should have done." Del Harris brought up an interesting thought. He said that if teams miss more than they make that offensive rebounding should be a huge part of our game plan. So much so that we as coaches design offenses and plays to get great shots, why don't we design offenses and plays to get great rebounding positioning. He said he wished he would have built in offensive rebounding in every set or offense he ran.
I took some time and began to look at the triangle and found that this definitely existed. To my left you see the ball at the "key spot." If it is shot at this spot there is a built in rebounder on the backside block. Understanding that %70 of all shots missed are rebounded long, that player needs to simply step in an seal his defender to get a rebound. With most defenses using a weakside helper to the middle of the floor, this man's defender, as I studied game film, camped right under the hoop. After a shot is taken, this defender is only in a good position to rebound it out of the net.
To the Right, the ball is in the hands of the point. There is a strongside double screen, however if the ball is shot, there is a %33 chance that it will go left, right and middle. Again, with the ball at the top, most defenses will be toward the ball, between their man and the ball. If the ball is shot, the weakside post player and strongside post player need only to step in and box out their defender for a rebound seeing as they are already naturally between their defender and the basket. Adding those percentages, you will make roughly %40 of those shots. of the %60 left you will have a 2/3 chance of getting the rebound on the miss. This raises your percentage of getting a basket or the ball back to %80. This percentage, obviously idealistic, is pretty impressive.
I have this diagrammed in all situations, however suffice it to say, positioning in your offense needs to be taken into consideration. There is a reason that Dennis Rodman led the league in rebounding at 6'9. Yes he pursued the ball and yes he was physical, however the Bulls would play him on the weakside in the triangle which, I learned last year, is the optimal spot for offensive rebounding. Now with the Lakers and their length, within the triangl, you are picking your poison as an opposing teams defense. Not so much Kobe or Pau, but Even if Kobe shoots a high volume of shots, there is built in rebounding spots that are being filled by Gasol and Bynum who simply have to keep the ball high and finish.
With that in mind I would like to say, I am not a Lakers fan at all. In fact my cross to bear has been my love of the Denver Nuggets. But, I still do not see how the Miami Thrice has been able to create a group that will rival the Size WITHIN THE APPROPRIATE SYSTEM that the Lakers Possess.