Westbrook isn’t achieving his insane rebound totals at the expense of the Thunder’s opponents. He’s grabbing all those rebounds from his own teammates. As a Reddit user recently pointed out, most of the increase in Westbrook’s rebounding this season comes on uncontested defensive rebounds—those for which no opposing player makes an attempt at the ball. Westbrook leads the league in that stat, coming in ahead of big men like Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan, and Hassan Whiteside.
If several Thunder players can grab the ball, why is Westbrook always the one who does? It may be a matter of scheme or coaching rather than selfishness. Whether they’ve been told to clear the runway for Westbrook or not, Westbrook’s teammates are certainly on board. “We’d rather it be him [getting the rebound],” Steven Adams told ESPN’s Royce Young earlier this year.
Might this be a smart strategic choice? Westbrook is an offensive dynamo, so getting the ball in his hands as quickly as possible could help create fast-break opportunities and open shots. The numbers, though, don’t suggest that Westbrook’s defensive boards are especially valuable. In general, we know that uncontested boards are worth about half as much to an NBA team as contested ones. With regard to Westbrook specifically, the Thunder averages 1.079 points per possession after he grabs a defensive rebound. When someone else on the team gets the rebound with Westbrook on the floor, the team gets 1.065 points per possession. That’s a difference of a little more than 1 point per 100 possessions—small enough to be inconsequential. And if you look at other indexes of offensive success (like turnovers or shooting percentage), there is no ironclad statistical evidence that Westbrook grabbing the defensive board helps the Thunder offense in any way.
