NBA Power Rankings: Andrea Bargnani and the 25 Saddest Rebounding Big Men Ever
Rebounding is at times an overlooked part of basketball. Until someone comes out and does something outstanding rebound-wise, like Kevin Love did this year, or someone comes out and just falls flat on his face, like Andrea Bargnani tends to do, do we really notice it.
It gets your team second-chance points, it takes a possession away from your opponent, and it just feels good to snag a rebound down in traffic.
My own game is pretty much centered around rebounding. I can't shoot from outside 12 feet and I have little to no body control around the rim, so I miss a lot of shots.
To make up for all of that, I box out, play hard and grab rebounds. After all, the more shots you take the more likely you are to score right?
I love seeing a player hustle after a loose ball or see a 6'6" guy come down with a rebound over the opposing team's center and power forward, it just shows heart and determination.
However, for the opposing center and power forward it shows laziness and softness, something nobody should exhibit on a basketball court.
Rebounding is essential to basketball, so in order to shame future generations into focusing on rebounding, I've thrown together a list of the 25 worst rebounding big men in the history of the NBA.
25. Darryl Dawkins
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This one kind of took me by surprise.
When I think of Chocolate Thunder, I think of this big, strong, intimidating man that can tear apart phone books with his pinky toes.
Well, Dawkins' best rebounding year was just 8.7 boards at the tail end of the fast-paced 70s.
He grabbed 9.3 boards per 36 minutes, but rebounded at a rate of just 13.9 percent, as there were more rebounds to be had in the era that he played.
24. Brook Lopez
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Brook Lopez did one of the worst things possible to Nets fans, he gave the illusion that he knew how to rebound.
Lopez spent the first two years of his career pulling them down with some ability, but this season he imploded, grabbing only six boards a game.
His career rebounds per 36 minutes is only eight, and he is rebounding at a rate of just 13 percent.
23. Elden Campbell
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Easy Elden Campbell had a few good rebounding years in his 15-year career, otherwise he was just too heavy and too slow to grab boards.
He averaged just 8.4 rebounds per 36 minutes, and rebounded at a rate of just 13.5 percent while he was in the league.
22. Tony Battie
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Tony Battie is your stereotypical big guy who was in the league because he was seven feet tall, otherwise he wouldn't even be the best guy in a rec league.
Battie averaged 6.5 rebounds per game in his best year, had a season with Orlando where he started all 82 games but only averaged 5.6 boards, and averaged just 5.8 for his career.
He was a decent defender in his days, but it wasn't because of his rebounding, as he rebounded at a rate of just 14 percent.
21. Bill Cartwright
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Many people will remember Bill Cartwright as the center for the Chicago Bulls in the first three-peat for the Chicago Bulls.
Cartwright didn't have the disadvantage of playing with Dennis Rodman, so he can't use that as an excuse for his poor rebounding.
Rebounding at a rate of 12.8 percent for his career, Cartwright picked up only 6.3 boards per game, which equated to just under eight per 36 minutes.
20. Marc Jackson
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I loved Mark Jackson back in his playing days (the point guard), so for some reason I had an irrational hatred for Marc Jackson (the center).
Jackson had a promising rookie campaign, averaging 7.4 rebounds.
But it all went downhill from there, as the most he averaged in a season after that was 5.7 as his career numbers rounded out to 4.3 boards a game and 7.9 per 36 minutes.
19. Hot Rod Williams
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Hot Rod Williams had a cool name and was a fan favorite in Cleveland, but the dude just couldn't rebound when you consider that he is 6'11".
Williams rebounded at a rate of just 13.1 percent, averaging 8.2 boards for 36 minutes and leveled out at just 6.8 per game.
18. Cherokee Parks
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Every once in a while, Cherokee Parks' name comes up and I just have to giggle.
Whether it's because he played for seven teams in just nine years, he had high expectations coming in and just faceplanted, or because of that terrible Statue of LIberty tattoo on his right arm, I just find him to be comical.
Parks had his numbers watered down by becoming the garbage time guy on a few teams later in his career, but he averaged just 3.6 rebounds per game.
For every 36 minutes he played, Parks would have grabbed just over eight boards if he played at a constant rate, plus he rebounded at a rate of just 13.1 percent.
17. Nenad Krstic
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A small part of one of this season's most questionable trades, Nenad Krstic is yet another former New Jersey Nets starting center who just couldn't rebound to save his life.
In his sophomore campaign, Krstic started 80 games for New Jersey, but averaged just 6.4 rebounds, and his career total currently sits at 5.4 boards per contest.
He has rebounded at a rate of 12.6 percent for his career, and averaged just 7.7 rebounds per 36 minutes.
16. Joe Barry Carroll
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Joe Barry Carroll started off his career fine, but for whatever reason he just degraded into a lazy player, eventually becoming known as Joe "Barely Cares."
He pulled down 9.3 boards in his rookie season, and never got that many again, averaging 7.7 for his career.
Carroll grabbed 8.2 per 36 minutes and rebounded at a rate of just 12.9 percent.
15. James Edwards
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James Edwards played for nearly 20 years in the NBA, and if he would have retired after the first six he might have been thought of as a decent rebounder.
He averaged at least seven rebounds per game in each of his first six seasons, but after that he never got back up to eight a game.
He ended up averaging 5.1 a game for his career and 7.6 per 36 minutes, rebounding at a rate of 11.6 percent.
14. Charlie Villanueva
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The Pistons thought that signing Charlie Villanueva (along with Ben Gordon) for an unjustified amount of money would keep them afloat after their championship years.
Boy were they wrong.
Villanueva, along with being offended by Kevin Garnett's trash talk, cannot rebound to save his life.
He had his best rebounding season back in 2009, a contract year, when he averaged 6.7 (yes, he stepped his rebounding up to just 6.7 in a contract year. The worst part is that it worked.).
Villanueva is averaging just 5.6 rebounds a game, eight for every 36 minutes he plays and is rebounding at a rate of 13.3 percent.
13. Tom Chambers
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Tom Chambers could dunk and shoot a nice mid-range jumpber, but boy he sure couldn't crash any boards.
Chambers averaged seven or more rebounds just three times in his career, grabbing 6.1 for his career, 7.1 per 36 minutes and rebounded at a rate of 11.2 percent.
On a weirder note, he did look a lot like David Bowie in full make-up.
12. Shawn Bradley
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The curse of the giant man. Everyone thinks you should be able to rebound everything in sight, but due to the lack of lateral quickness and (in Shawn Bradley's case) complete lack of coordination.
Bradley was 7'6", and did have a few good rebounding seasons early in his career when he was still springy, but when he started to slow down and run like Frankenstein, he was just embarrassing to watch.
The big man averaged just 6.3 rebounds for his career, as he nearly completely fell apart near the end of it.
11. Tim Thomas
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Tim Thomas could shoot the hell out of the three-ball, but put him down low to bang around and he's utterly useless.
Thomas averaged just 4.1 rebounds per game on his career and just 5.7 per 36 minutes, plus he rebounded at an astoundingly rate of 9.2 percent.
The worst part about it all is that the guy made nearly $100 million in his career.
10. Danny Ferry
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Danny Ferry is like Tim Thomas on anti-steroids.
Like Tim he could drain the three ball, and also like Tim he didn't rebound anything. It's like he was afraid of the ball.
Ferry was floating around the three point line for a big portion of his career, but he still should have done something better than 2.8 rebounds per game at a rate of just 8.4 percent for 5.1 per 36 minutes.
9. Orlando Woolridge
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Woolridge is a guy that floated around the league after starting a lot for the Bulls early on in his career. Teams must have realized that he just couldn't rebound.
Woolridge averaged just 4.3 rebounds per game, 5.5 per 36 minutes and at a completely terrible rate of 8.5 percent.
Even when he was starting he didn't rack up numbers, as the most he averaged in a season where he started the majority of the games he played in was a below-average 6.8 boards.
8. Jason Collins
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Jason Collins was the Nets starting center for half a decade, but he rebounded like he was a good point guard.
Collins averaged just four rebounds a game for his career, and only 6.6 boards per 36 minutes, rebounding at a rate of 10.7 percent.
7. Brad Lohaus
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Mostly a bench player throughout his NBA career, Brad Lohaus just didn't have a nose for the ball.
When he finally did get on the court for a good amount of time during a season, he did almost nothing in the rebounding department, as his best year came in 1989-90, when he started 41 games, but averaged only five rebounds a game.
He finished his career with a measly 2.8 rebounds per game, but those numbers can sometimes get skewed when guys come in and play just a few minutes in a game, which Lohaus did a lot, so his per 36 minute numbers give a much clearer picture.
Lohaus averaged just 6.5 rebounds per 36 minutes, at a rate of 10.4 percent throughout his career.
6. Manute Bol
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Call it bad knees, call it lack of quickness, call it whatever you want, but the fact is that Manute Bol was just not a good rebounder.
Most guys his size never do much in terms of rebounding, probably because it is so hard for them to maneuver their bodies with any ease, and their numbers reflect that.
Bol averaged just 4.2 rebounds per game, with his best rebounding year topping out at 6.2 per game.
He pulled down rebounds at a rate of 12.2 percent.
5. Kevin Duckworth
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Duckworth looked like he was on his way early in his career, averaging 7.1 and eight rebounds in his second and third seasons in the league.
Then, everything just went downhill. He never averaged more than 6.6 a game, and finished his career with a 5.8 rebound per game average.
His rebound rate only amounted to 12.5 percent for his whole career.
4. Eddy Curry
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Insert Eddy Curry fat joke here.
It's too easy to make fun of Eddy Curry these days, he gave us so much ammo. One thing that he gave us was his utter incompetence when it came to rebounding.
Curry isn't like a lot of these other big men that can't rebound, he had no long range game, and he was physically built (he was around 300 pounds for a lot of his career), so he was hunkered down under the basket for long stretches of games.
However, Curry only averaged 7.5 rebound per 36 minutes, rebounding the ball at a rate of 12 percent.
I bet if you were to start throwing cheeseburgers off the glass he would set a rebounding record.
3. Clifford Robinson
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Clifford Robinson played for 17 years in the NBA thanks to his ability to shoot the three-ball, which was vastly superior to his ability to rebound.
Robinson's best rebounding year came in 1994 when he averaged 6.7 rebounds per game, otherwise he was terrible.
He averaged just 5.3 rebounds per 36 minutes, which equates to an 8.4 rebound rate.
2. Brad Sellers
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I have nearly convinced myself that if Brad Sellers would have played on the Chicago Bulls in 1997 instead of 1987 Michael Jordan would have killed him.
This man had two of the most embarrassing rebounding seasons any seven-footer has ever had.
The 1987-88 season saw Sellers start 76 games and grab only 250 rebounds. That's three a game if you're keeping score at home.
Sellers continued the following season, starting only 25 games, but playing in 80 getting 2.8 boards.
That equals to about 4.1 and 4.7 rebounds per 36 minutes respectively.
For his career, Sellers posted a rebound rate of 8.6 percent...the same as his assist rate. How does that happen to a seven-footer?
1. Andrea Bargnani
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Andrea Bargnani is an absolute waste of height. You could make this man 6'5" and his stats would barely budge.
The big Italian is an absolute embarrassment to big men, averaging 4.9 rebounds per game for his career, and when you take a look at his per 36 minutes average, it only bumps up to 5.8 rebounds.
What's worse, his rebound percentage rate is utterly atrocious. Bargnani rebounds at a rate of 9.5 percent, with last season being his worst yet, at a miserable 8.6 percent.
When asked about his lack of rebounds, he once responded, "It's called basketball, not rebound-ball."
There isn't much more I can say about the guy after that one.
