Some guys grab up huge rebounding numbers because they are free to roam the weakside on offense, are not asked to guard the perimeter on defense, etc. In fact, there are some asked to do almost nothing else offensively. They can focus their entire game on gobbling up rebounds as their solitary mission. And that is not to condemn that as a bad thing - necessarily. But when someone is doing "all the dirty work", at times it's because they aren't helping a lick with any of the "clean work." There is a whole heck of a lot of non-rebounding stuff that needs to be done by lots of guys on a team that occupy huge amounts of focus, practice, energy, and attention AND simply put them on the strong side of the hoop where less than half of the rebounds will go.
Dennis Rodman's teammates needed so little help offensively from him that he could focus all his effort on rebounding. And boy did that prove valuable. And he was just so freaking great at it that who would ever argue the strategy. Not me. But there was tons of excellent, brilliant and difficult work being done by Jordan, Pippen, and others that he simply wasn't responsible for. There are other big rebounders who get criticism that they at times forsake some of their job to pad those numbers. Maybe they don't help so much on drives in order to head to the weakside a bit early. Or they'd rather foul foul out going for yet another board than stay in the game. I've heard this a bit about Kevin Love by a few fellow fans...that his defense suffers at the expense of more rebounds. On the flip side, Shane Battier was praised for giving up the rebounding stat when tipping it to a teammate or double blocking out the opponent's big man was more likely to work. On the defensive glass, everyone must clearly attack. It is everyone's responsibility and critical. But guys guarding the best scorers are often left on the strong side of misses and unable to defend then cross the lane to get the board.
My overall point is that everyone cannot (and in some cases should not) get big rebounding numbers. That is partly a self fulfilling prophesy based, ironically, on a player's other gifts. Rodman could have scored a few more points by posting up, but it would have cost, even him, some rebounds. And it would have taken some shots away from Michael Jordan. And Jordan could have been a demon on the boards, if that were his only mission at all times. But who would have wanted that??
Dennis Rodman's teammates needed so little help offensively from him that he could focus all his effort on rebounding. And boy did that prove valuable. And he was just so freaking great at it that who would ever argue the strategy. Not me. But there was tons of excellent, brilliant and difficult work being done by Jordan, Pippen, and others that he simply wasn't responsible for. There are other big rebounders who get criticism that they at times forsake some of their job to pad those numbers. Maybe they don't help so much on drives in order to head to the weakside a bit early. Or they'd rather foul foul out going for yet another board than stay in the game. I've heard this a bit about Kevin Love by a few fellow fans...that his defense suffers at the expense of more rebounds. On the flip side, Shane Battier was praised for giving up the rebounding stat when tipping it to a teammate or double blocking out the opponent's big man was more likely to work. On the defensive glass, everyone must clearly attack. It is everyone's responsibility and critical. But guys guarding the best scorers are often left on the strong side of misses and unable to defend then cross the lane to get the board.
My overall point is that everyone cannot (and in some cases should not) get big rebounding numbers. That is partly a self fulfilling prophesy based, ironically, on a player's other gifts. Rodman could have scored a few more points by posting up, but it would have cost, even him, some rebounds. And it would have taken some shots away from Michael Jordan. And Jordan could have been a demon on the boards, if that were his only mission at all times. But who would have wanted that??
