Great analysis. I think you're still missing a piece here though. Portland's defense has been above average (leading to more rebounding opportunities), and the offense has also been above average (leading to fewer opportunities for the opponents). A better approach would be to use the % of rebound opportunities. (ORB%, DRB%, and TRB%). Sorting the data here, Portland ranks 5th for offensive rebounds, 19th for defensive rebounds, and 9th for total. They're a better than average rebounding team, but nowhere near top of the league level.
Agreed, I always us rebounding percentages when evaluating individual players. In this case, I stuck with the more basic per game numbers to be consistent with the original post. BNM
Davis ranks 11th in offensive rebounds and only plays 17 minutes a game. That’s crazy. Everyone around him is a starter. Vonleh is ranked in the top 25. I wish we would’ve kept him. He’d fit our current squad better than Davis as well since he can knock down a shot.
Back to the good old days of the Drexler Blazers, when Portland perennially led the league in rebounding, despite Buck being our lead rebounder with only about 8rpg.
Team stats, change from last season to this season: ORB%: improved slightly from 10th to 5th DRB%: plummeted from 5th to 19th https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2018.html https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2019.html (see Miscellaneous Stats section) Ed Davis vs. Zach Collins, rank on team Davis last season: 1st in ORB%, 1st in DRB% Collins this season: 6th in ORB%, 9th in DRB% https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2018.html https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2019.html (see Advanced section) Analysis: To compensate for the loss of Davis, the brave combined effort of all Blazers except Collins has resulted in our moving upward 9 places in ORB% and 4 places in DRB%. Collins' contribution is to move us downward 4 places in ORB% and 18 places in DRB%. Thus the net changes are (+9 - 4 =) 5 places upward in ORB% and (+4 - 18 =) 14 places downward in DRB%. Thus, our rebounding would have been higher this season with Ed Davis instead of the Collins calamity.
Also, don't forget that Collins shooting outside so much and missing all the time has probably tripled the number of available rebounds. Ed "Never Miss" Davis would have cleaned up all those rebounds if he were on the floor now playing with Calamity, who would thus fall even further behind Davis in rebounding. Come to think about it, all those Collins long shots are probably the sole cause of Portland's ORB% increase. If he would miss more, we could move up to 1st place.
Collins is better than Davis man he's also shooting 40% from 3, not "missing all the time" Actually his TS% is .691, better than Ed "Never Miss" Davis' .607 of last season He's also playing defense at a level Ed could only ever dream of, never mind being better in most statistical category. (for instance, doubling Ed's point average from last season) And he's 8 year younger. I loved Ed when he was there but if you try to compare him to Collins, it's not gonna end up looking good.
As they say, love is blind. You're letting your love for Ed blind you to what Zach has to offer. Loving Freedom is an integral part of True Love. True love is not possessive. If you really, truly love someone, you should encourage them to choose the path that makes them happy, even if that path leads them away from you. We didn't leave Ed. He chose to leave us, and Neil gave him his blessing. He allowed Ed the freedom to pursue the path to his happiness. Ed has moved on. You should do the same. Oh sure, he should always have a place in your heart. What you had was special. Continue to cherish those memories, but it's time to make room in your heart for someone new. BNM
More like Trader Bob vs. Neil trying to park their own cars for dinner at some trendy hot spot on NW 23rd. I predict Whitsitt wins by default when Neil gets so frustrated leaves his car in the middle of the street, tosses the keys to some homeless guy and says, "have a nice nap, be back in two hours.". BNM