Jamie Dixon at Spurs Training Camp
University of Pittsburg head coach Jamie Dixon was in San Antonio yesterday, taking in DeJuan Blair’s first practice. I’m hopeful he and Coach Popovich were able to have a long conversation about Blair.
DeJuan Blair is an all-world force on the boards. He’s especially good on the offensive glass. And by especially good, I mean he’s a singular talent that comes along once in a generation. John Gasaway of Basketball Prospectus provides this summation:
Let’s start with two numbers that were already present in separate compartments of my brain but that Ken Pomeroy brought to my attention as a wedded couple:
25.1Â Â Â 21.1
Ah, the decimals, the Courier typeface, you just know I’m gearing up to wield some incredibly complex calculations in support of my choice, right?
Hardly. The number on the left is Blair’s offensive rebound percentage this year. The number on the right is Colorado’s offensive rebound percentage. Repeat: the number on the right is what the entire Colorado team combined to accomplish this season, rebounding 21 percent of their own misses. Blair by himself hauled in 25 percent of his team’s misses during his minutes. For the record Blair also outperformed Nebraska, Samford, Weber State and Iowa State, among others. He is a team unto himself…
…this is the first year we’ve seen a player dominate the offensive glass to such a ridiculous extreme that he alone can outperform entire teams.
No problem with any of that, right? Well, no. But there is a lingering curiosity.
The San Antonio Spurs are a routinely poor offensive rebounding team. In fact, John Hollinger tells us that the Spurs’ offensive rebound percentage was the worst in basketball last season:
San Antonio was the best defensive rebounding team, pulling down 78.1 percent of opponents’ missed shots, and yet the worst offensive rebounding team, collecting only 22.1 percent of their own missed shots. It doesn’t seem possible that a team could rebound so well defensively and so horribly offensively, but in fact the two are very different skills. Additionally, San Antonio’s playing style — with Duncan having his back to the basket and four shooters spacing the floor — has never been conducive to high offensive rebound totals.
And there is something else that Hollinger omitted. Gregg Popovich prefers transition defense to offensive boards. On defense, the Spurs motto is to allow their opponent one, and only one, tough, contested shot. They close out, box, board and break. On offense, they want to create one high percentage shot and then immediately get back on defense. For the most part, the Spurs leave the offensive glass alone in exchange for the opportunity to set up a fortress up around the opposing team’s rim. It’s a transaction that produces historically great defensive teams.
So, then, how should Gregg Popovich treat DeJuan Blair, king of the offensive glass?
This, I think, is a good conversation for Pop to have with Dixon. What are the best ways to space and screen for DeJuan Blair? Luke Winn describes how Coach Dixon was able to assist Blair at Pitt:
Blair’s job mostly calls for him to set an early ball screen (for Fields) while he’s running down the floor, and then camp out in the paint after that. Pitt then attempts to free Blair up for post touches by setting across-the-lane screens, off of which he can receive the ball at close range to the basket, lower his shoulder, and drop it in for two points. Rarely does he roam outside the lane to receive passes, and this keeps him in prime position to clean up others’ misses.
If Coach Popovich wants to maximize DeJuan Blair’s production on the offensive glass, these are the sort of things he’ll have to consider. It’s something to watch.
