Is Sheed The Worst Offensive Rebounding Center in the NBA?

Posted by Brian Robb on Mar 1, 2010 646215 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F03%2F01%2Fis-sheed-the-worst-offensive-rebounding-center-in-the-league%2FIs+Sheed+The+Worst+Offensive+Rebounding+Center+in+the+NBA%3F+2010-03-01+18%3A22%3A53Brian+Robbhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D6462

Over this weekend, after the Saturday afternoon trainwreck, I was spending some time doing what any pissed off Celtic obsessed fan might be doing……wasting time looking through this team’s numbers, trying to figure out exactly when and how it all went wrong.

Needless to say, over the course of this expedition, one guy who caught my attention was Rasheed Wallace. We all know the book on Sheed. He takes too many threes. He gets needless technicals. The only way he will knowingly exhibit some extra effort on the floor is if his defender is dangling a donut on the string in front of him. Ok, that last bit is just a guess, but we haven’t seen any evidence to disprove that theory.

Given this reality, I find it a bit ironic Wallace is playing for a team that receives “Tommy points” for showing any kind of effort that would resemble extra hustle on a nightly basis. How many points do you think Sheed has earned this year total? 2? 3? That might be a generous estimate. And what are the odds of Sheed getting the Tommy Award any given night? 100 to 1? 500 to 1? Unless he shoots the lights out, he’s not getting it and given his track record in that department this year, those odds should probably be higher.

With all that said, it’s painfully clear I am a bitter Boston Celtic fan right now looking for a target worthy of my venom. Rasheed Wallace fits the bill right now in more ways than one. He has many noteworthy flaws, that go beyond the 3 pointers and lackadaisical play. One in-depth glance through his numbers this year gave me more ammo on the guy that I knew what to do with. So I decided to spread it out for a bit.

Here’s what we are going to do here at CelticsHub. Every Monday, there will be a disturbing Sheed stat of the week. It will be some kind of number that drives us crazy about our 7 foot sleeping giant. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad stat, just one that makes me rip my hair out.

For instance, did you know that Rasheed Wallace is shooting 52 percent from 10-15 feet this year? That’s a terrific number, good for 4th in the league amongst centers that play 20+ minutes per game. Great stuff right? Well not really since he takes only takes just over 1 of his 9 total shots per game from that distance. What’s that? You pulled most of your hair out? Good, you’re getting the idea then.

To start though, we will go simple and pitiful for the disturbing Sheed Stat Of The Week and take a look at our forgotten friend….offensive rebounding. We all know how Doc Rivers isn’t putting much of an emphasis on offensive rebounding this year right? The team ranks 28th in the league in offensive rebounding percentage. It’s not a pretty number, but can be accepted. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.

One man who has taken Doc’s philosophy to heart is none other than our man Sheed. The league average for a center this year in offensive rebounding rate is 9.8 percent, or in other words an average center grabs an offensive rebound when they are available 9.8 percent of the time on the floor.

How does that compare to Sheed? Well, he grabs offensive rebounds a whopping 3.2 percent of the time. Yikes. So where exactly does that rank compare to the rest of the other centers in the league that have played the position this year for more than a couple games?

DEAD LAST. I wish I was kidding. Rasheed Wallace is statistically the worst offensive rebounding center in the NBA according to HoopData.com the fantastic stat crunching site. Ironically, the 2nd worst offensive rebounder on that list? Tony Battie. Get that man a contract Danny so we can put those two on the floor out there together!

So how would you characterize that number for Sheed? Disturbing? Terrific, that’s what we were shooting for. Feel a little bit better now that you have blown of some steam? Mean neither, but it was fun anyway. Feel free to add your own disturbing Sheed stats in the comments. Until next week…..