Basketball is simple. You put the ball in the hoop. You stop the other guy from doing the same. But somewhere in between those two acts lies the gritty, unglamorous world of the glass. If you can’t secure a miss, you’re basically just giving the opponent free money. Right now, being the worst rebounding team in NBA history—or even just the worst in the current 2025-26 season—is a fast track to the lottery.
It’s honestly painful to watch. You play forty seconds of great defense, force a contested fading jumper, and then... clank. The ball bounces long. A guard who hasn't touched the paint all night swoops in, grabs it, and kicks it out for an open three. Possession reset. Soul crushed.
The Bottom of the Barrel: Who is Struggling Most?
Numbers don't lie, though they sometimes hide the "why." As we hit the midway point of the 2025-26 season, the Brooklyn Nets have found themselves in a historic hole. They are currently pulling down a league-low 40.2 rebounds per game. To put that in perspective, the Houston Rockets—who are absolutely vacuuming everything right now—are grabbing over 49 per game.
That is nearly ten possessions of difference. Ten!
Brooklyn’s struggles aren't just a lack of height. They have Nic Claxton. They have Michael Porter Jr. and even some decent length on the wings with rookies like Egor Demin. But as Coach Jordi Fernandez recently vented after a loss to New Orleans, they started this season as one of the worst defensive rebounding units in the history of the league. They'll have a week where they look like they've figured it out, and then they'll give up 18 offensive boards to a team like the Pelicans and lose by a bucket.
It isn't just a Brooklyn problem, though. The Milwaukee Bucks and LA Clippers are also hovering in that bottom-three territory, barely cracking 40 boards a night.
Why Good Teams Sometimes Rank Poorly
You’d think a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo would be a rebounding juggernaut. It’s not that simple. Sometimes, being the worst rebounding team in NBA stats is a byproduct of how you play defense.
If your scheme requires your big men to "drop" deep or, conversely, "blitz" out to the perimeter to stop three-pointers, they aren't under the rim when the shot goes up.
- The Spacing Trap: If you play "Small Ball" to maximize shooting, you’re trading size for points.
- The Transition Choice: Some coaches tell their players to ignore the offensive glass entirely and sprint back to prevent fast breaks.
- Long Rebounds: In 2026, everyone shoots threes. Long shots lead to long rebounds. Your 7-foot center can't do much when the ball bounces 15 feet over his head to a waiting point guard.
The Indiana Pacers are a classic example. They play fast. They score a ton. But they are consistently near the bottom in total rebounds because their priority is getting back on defense and preventing easy layups, rather than fighting for scraps.
The "Board Man Gets Paid" Crisis
Is it effort? Mostly. Rebounding is 90% "want-to."
Look at Steven Adams in Houston. The guy is a mountain. He’s currently averaging 4.5 offensive rebounds per game because he treats every missed shot like a personal insult. On the flip side, you have rosters where the "star" players are more interested in leaked-out transition dunks than boxing out a hungry power forward.
The Atlanta Hawks have been dealing with this "effort vs. scheme" disaster all year. They’ve been one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, with only Washington and Miami occasionally dipping lower in rebounding rates. The issue in Atlanta is that they’re thin. Literally. Kristaps Porzingis is a mismatch nightmare on offense, but at the five spot, he’s often getting pushed around by bruisers. Without Onyeka Okongwu on the floor to do the "grunt work," the Hawks’ defensive possessions frequently end in a second-chance bucket for the other guys.
Real Talk: Does Rebounding Still Win Championships?
There’s a massive shift happening right now. For a while, the NBA's "Analytics Era" told everyone to stop crashing the offensive glass. The logic was: "It's not worth the risk of giving up a fast break."
That’s changing.
The 2026 season has seen a massive resurgence in "tagging up"—a strategy where three or even four players crash the glass. The New York Knicks are leading this charge, creating nearly five extra scoring chances per game. When you play a team like that, and you're the worst rebounding team in NBA categories, the game is over before it starts. You can't give a professional basketball team 15 extra shots and expect to win.
What a Team Can Actually Do to Fix It
If you’re a fan of a team that can’t buy a board, don't lose hope. It’s fixable. It just isn't fun.
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- Change the Metric: Coaches need to stop looking at "Total Rebounds" and start looking at "Rebounding Percentage." If a team shoots 60%, there aren't many rebounds to get! Percentage tells you who is actually winning the battles that exist.
- The "Box Out" Accountability: Some teams have started tracking "Box Out Wins" as a stat. If a player doesn't put a body on someone, they get called out in film sessions. Peer pressure is a hell of a drug.
- Personnel Moves: Sometimes you just need a "junkyard dog." Think of players like Andre Drummond or even a young guy like Donovan Clingan in Portland. These guys don't need plays called for them; they just exist to end defensive possessions.
Fixing a rebounding deficiency starts with the coaching staff admitting that "scheme" isn't an excuse for getting bullied. Whether it's Brooklyn, Milwaukee, or any other team struggling on the glass, the solution is usually found in the weight room and the film room, not the trade block.
Actionable Insights for the Glass:
Focus on Rebounding Percentage over raw totals to see how your team is actually performing relative to missed shots. If you're watching a game and notice your team is giving up too many boards, look at where the "long rebounds" are going—often it's the guards failing to "crack back" and help the bigs. True improvement only happens when all five players on the floor commit to the box-out, not just the guy standing under the rim.