Why can’t Zion rebound like that all the time?

Josh is out so there no one to vulture Zion rebounds lol.

But for real him playing mostly point last night made him stay back and defensive rebound more than trying to leak out.

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Josh is out so there no one to vulture Zion rebounds lol

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I'm sorry, but this is legit one of the dumbest fricking complaints of NBA fans. Our fans did the same shite with Aminu. If a smaller guy is "stealing" rebounds from you, you arent working hard enough. Is Hart supposed to let the ball hit the court so Zion has a better chance? That also gives the opposing guards a better chance at it.

Yeah, Zion is usually leaking out early in transition for a possible pass, while Lonzo or Hart pushes the ball up the court -- and both Lonzo and Hart are excellent at that.

Neither of those guys played last night, so Zion was taking the ball up the court, which meant that he was staying back to rebound.

What we saw last night was Jaxson Hayes running the floor to get open for some of those passes.

Dude was joking, relax...you couldn't tell?

I’m fine with the point-Zion thing but if it’s going to become something that we rely on late in games then Zion needs to work on his handle some more. It’s still very good for a guy his size but it can be better. Jaxon’s handle is really something to see, he’s got a great all around game plus he looks to be an 80% free throw shooter. Loved that little 12’ pull up from Zion last night he needs to show that dude of his game more.

Just like the Lakers have and the Clippers and Boston lack, having an additional natural facilitator that is a three level scorer is key to our long term success imo.

You are gonna need to have someone that can also create in crunch time and alleviate pressure. To me that’s why someone like Brogdon or Haliburton would make so much sense here.

Lonzo could be that guy if he could learn to stop treating the interior of the arc like it’s fricking lava and he can’t touch it.

The Zion and lack of rebounding take is one of the worst of all time. It would be one thing if we are a bad rebounding team but we aren’t. Zion plays whatever role is asked of him. If the coaching staff wanted or needed him to get 15 boards a game, he would.

It's because "rebounds" is really a useless stat. Offensive rebounds mean something, and contested defensive rebounds mean something, but lots of defensive rebounds are uncontested and meaningless.

I might not go so far as to call it useless, but I think like a lot of box stats, it should just be a starting point, not a finish line.

Because like Westbrook and Zion, or even Barkley and Zion. Those three are asked to do three different things, and two of those roles mean they will get more rebounds.

Zion, up until last night, has been asked to often leak out to get out into transition, let Adams, Hayes, and our guards get those boards to get into the offense quick as possible before defenses set. Barkley and Westbrook were explicity put in roles where they are needing to get the rebound.

Where rebounds become concerning(and maybe fuller time point Zion alleviates this) is when your role is to get boards, but you struggle. ALA Hayes.

Bigs are also often spending their energy sealing their man, which allows your guards and wings to crash for easy rebounds. As others have implied, not all rebounds are created equally. Some rebounds are bigs sealing and grabbing it off the rim. Then you have bricks that bounce 20 feet off the rim before falling into a guard's lap.

Zion actually creates a lot of easy offensive rebounds for our bigs on his drives when they slide over to help. His soft layup then falls off the rim to Adams or a crashing guard because the opposing 5 is under the basket with Zion.