Honorable Mentions
Tristan Thompson, Cleveland Cavaliers
Thompson is undersized for a center (6’9″), but what he lacks in “height” (relatively speaking of course), he makes up for in rebounding.
Thompson is 4th in total offensive rebounds with 283. Past that, he doesn’t crack the top 20 on basketballreference.com in defensive rebounds; but interestingly breaks the top 20 in total rebounds with 711, good for 13th on the list.
Thompson does hold a 14.1 offensive rebounding percentage, ahead of the likes of Rudy Gobert, Hassan Whiteside, and DeAndre Jordan; but it feels a little hollow with the Cavs’ recent struggles. (I am by no means blaming their struggles on Thompson alone, but I’m not sure how much he helps).
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Cavs don’t really have much depth behind Thompson. They had Chris Andersen on the roster to help, but he is now on IR (and has been for some time), but the Cavs got a draft pick and cash for. That’s one of the most under the radar stories from this season.
The Cavs share my worries about their depth, and tried to fix it by signing Andrew Bogut (the irony), but he broke his leg a minute into this debut, and quickly turned to a guy that hadn’t played in the NBA for years in Larry Sanders; who is splitting time between riding the bench and the D-League. But back to Thompson.
Thompson hasn’t been very effective for his career (51.4 eFG%), but has bumped it up significantly (59.8 eFG%) this season.
I can’t put my finger exactly on it, but I just hesitate to put him on the team.