The NBA season is almost a quarter over, but it still feels like we’re learning a lot about what’s real and what’s not. Between hot shootouts and a depressing number of star injuries, narratives and statistics can still swing one way or the other.

According to an analysis by Krishna Narsu with Nylon Calculus, the rebound percentage can be expected to be around the 15-game mark, a threshold the league recently passed. While there are obviously teams that have spent much or all of the season less than the entire season, this seems as good a time as any to look at this statistic.

Rebounding is an extremely effective way to give your offense extra possessions and score points on the attacking side, while on the other hand keeping the possession battle in your favor by limiting your opponents’ options through control of the defensive glass.

It takes a certain level of discipline, effort and yes, size to be a dominant rebounding team. Winning basketball games is not the be-all and end-all. Broadly speaking, conference finalists over the last four seasons averaged 11th in the league in rebounding percentage, ranging from fourth (Nuggets in 2023) to 26th (Mavericks in 2024).

Here we explain which teams have been put to the test so far this season.

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Last season’s league leaders were the Knicks with 52.7 percent, while the Rockets led the league the year before with 53.0 percent. So these numbers are exactly consistent with what we’ve seen recently.

The Memphis Grizzlies and their towering rookie center Zach Edey are leading the league in rebounding at this point in the season. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder are at the bottom of the league and their small teams are trying to stay afloat after injuries to their big men.

Among the top five, the Raptors, Rockets, Grizzlies and Hornets achieve their numbers primarily by focusing on breaking the offense, as they rank first, second, third and fourth in offensive rebound rate, respectively the league.

Edey crushes opponents on the offensive glass, ranking fourth in the league in individual offensive rebound rate (minimum 15 minutes per game) and grabbing over three of them per game in just 20 minutes per game. At 6-foot-10, it’s just hard to keep him away from the boards, and that part of his game has translated very well from college, as expected.

However, Edey is not alone. According to Cleaning the Glass, he is one of five players on the roster who are in the 80th percentile or better for their position in offensive rebounding. Jake LaRavia, Brandon Clarke, Marcus Smart and John Konchar all crash into the offensive glass with reckless abandon, flying in from anywhere on the field.

On the other hand, Memphis ranks just 23rd in the league in defensive rebounds percentage and 27th in opponent second-chance points per game. They actually struggled to stop their opponents from using one of their greatest strengths against them.

They like to get out and run and play in transition more often than any other team in the league. So perhaps this contributes to some missed defensive rebounding opportunities. Some of their other frontcourt players like Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jay Huff are also relatively poor rebounders in their careers, which compounds the problem.

Down in Houston, everyone’s favorite bench duo, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason, are using their elite athleticism to help the Rockets control the boards on both ends as they rank in the top ten in both categories. Seriously, if you didn’t see these two come into the game and wreak havoc in every corner of the field, you were missing out.

The Rockets’ ability to create extra shots for themselves while limiting their opponents’ extra opportunities is a hugely underrated part of their success so far this season. For coach Ime Udoka, dominance was at the top of his to-do list at the start of the season and they did not disappoint.

The Clippers, ranked third overall, are the only team in the top five to do so due to their defensive rebounding, where they rank first in the league at 74.6 percent. Their fifth-ranked defense is bolstered by their ability to limit opponents to one shot, in addition to their abundance of talented defenders. They allow just 12.1 second chance points per game, which is the second fewest in the league.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Thunder don’t seem to be able to keep a player over 6’3″ on the court for very long and are not good at rebounding at all. However, they have the No. 1 defense in the league, so it’s hard to complain. They fly around the field and generate turnovers while limiting offensive turnovers themselves, winning the battle of possession this way rather than on the glass. After the long-awaited debut of Isaiah Hartenstein, they look to make up for that weakness while continuing to wreak havoc before the shot goes off, which would make this elite team even scarier.

It shouldn’t be too surprising that the 76ers are also at the bottom of the list in their hellish season. Joel Embiid has obviously had an… eventful start to the year and they seriously lack size at every other position on the floor.

Overall, this list shows a bit of a hodgepodge of teams that are currently on the winning list across the league. Six of the top 10 are over .500, while the other four have lost more games than they won, which on the surface shows a weaker correlation between the two variables. The Rockets and Hornets are the only two teams in the top ten in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage, but both have therefore posted different results in the win/loss column.

As teams get healthier, there will be bigger shifts in some of these numbers. So keep an eye out to see which teams continue to be disciplined and which may falter as the season progresses.