Chicago offense has a major flaw

Offensive rebounding.

Chicago had a -1.3 relative offense last year, meaning their offensive rating was 1.3 points worse than average.

I’ve been segmenting out the value derived from Transition offense, Half Court First Chance opportunities, and Second Chance opportunities. link if interested: https://gyazo.com/82918bc676391758fab7a5ea4f746a18

Chicago ranks dead last in second chance points per 100 possessions. They generate 3.1 points less second chance points than an average team in the NBA. 3.1 points per 100 is a LOT.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Offensive rebounding isn’t as important anymore. Pace and space. I think it’s still important, it’s still extra possessions and points on the scoreboard. It’s less emphasized in the design of the offense in terms of where the players are, but the simple fact is getting offensive rebounds helps your teams win. You simply can’t abandon them entirely or you will fall behind in points per possession, as Chicago has.

The question is why does Chicago suck at offensive rebounding? I think there are three main reasons why Chicago sucks at offensive rebounding:

1) Vuc is spacing the floor much more frequently. Back in his Orlando days he had a 12% ORB rate (meaning, he would offensively rebound 12% of misses.) In Chicago he’s currently at 6.7%. The average center is around 10% or 11%. There is a cost to be paid for spacing the floor in offensive rebounding percentage. Vuc still gets his post touches and occasionally crashes. I’m not sure if the drop in his ORB rate is strictly due to his spacing or also just him declining as a rebounder. If Vuc is spacing the floor above the break, I think it makes sense that other players should crash the boards more, like:

2) Patrick Williams. He has just a 4% ORB rate despite being a 15% usage player. There is zero reason this dude should not have an 8% ORB rate. So many people on this sub are bullish Patrick Williams offensive game because of some flashes he shows. I don’t really think he projects well in this area, because he’s already so far behind the curve in terms of playmaking. His numbers finishing inside the arc is not encouraging to me. If he wants to be the next Kawhi, I think he should learn how to rebound on both ends. That’s his biggest and easiest value add.

3) Chicago has a center who spaces but is last in 3 point frequency. Derozan runs a lot of isolation offense that end up just being pull up middy’s and FTs. Is all this spacing needed for Derozan to operate and take mid rangers? I think Chicago’s approach around spacing and offensive rebounding is just off base.

I’d rather be last in 3 pointers with a team that fights for ORBs. That’s a strategy that can work.

Listen, I get it, Chicago’s defense is good in transition, and that is partly due to their reluctance to go for ORBs. It’s not good enough to warrant being this bad on the offensive glass.

by gosuruss