The CSL

To help with our study, we hired former Memphis Grizzly and currently unemployed rebounding ace Zach Randolph

Rebounders, they are needed on every team, especially teams that may somewhat struggle with efficiency. Every year, rookie Power Forwards and Centres of all shapes and sizes join the league. GMs have been asking the question of whether height (or weight - more to come) have impact on player's ability to rebound. In theory, it should but there are plenty of examples out there that contradict common sense.

To see whether height has an impact, we decided to run a study with the help of Zach Randolph. We created a fictional league (MNL) and took control of the Memphis Grizzlies with Zach Randolph as the starting Power Forward.

- We adjusted Durability rating of all players to 100 to minimise the impact of injuries
- Set the strategy to 5 for Zone, Press, Defensive Intensity and Pace. Both Rebounds were set to 10
- While Zach's height changes throughout the study, his weight remains as-is - 260 lbs

3 tests were performed:
- 3 full season sims with Zach at his usual height 6-9
- 3 full season sims at 6-7 with no other changes
- 3 full season sims at 6-11 with no other changes

(both Height and Display Height were adjusted in the game file)

Here is an overview of the team that participated in the study



And here is Zach



Those with a keen eye for detail may have noticed him being slightly taller on the screenshot than usual.

Without dragging out too much (since most of you have goldfish like attention spans anyway), here are the results:



Surprisingly enough, there is little difference. In fact, Zach performed worse at 6-11 than he did at 6-7 where he proved to be most consistent. I was particularly interested to see what happens with his rebounding percentage. Since he shrank in height but his weight remained the same, perhaps this is an indication that, just like defence, rebounding uses a Height/Weight ratio instead of individual measurements of Height and Weight.

Just for the fun of it, we also recorded Blocks and Steals. Not being a shot-blocker, Zach nevertheless consistently showed higher block numbers the taller he got. With steals it seems that he performed the best at 6-9 and the worst at 6-7, perhaps due to less drives stopped.

(All sim files are saved and available in a ZIP if you would like to see. Just send me your email)

Re: Height and block #s - this is why I'm so anti-short players in the paint. Not only are their blocks fewer, they themselves get shots blocked more often.

Very interesting study. Crazy how old this game is and we are all still trying to learn the nuances of it.

Good article.
Stanley is proof that height doesn't matter much for bigs.

andrei wrote:Since he shrank in height but his weight remained the same, perhaps this is an indication that, just like defence, rebounding uses a Height/Weight ratio instead of individual measurements of Height and Weight.

Correct. The larger the weight-to-height ratio is, the better a player establishes position, which turns into more rebounds and higher shooting percentages. It also has its drawbacks, though.

Great job with this analysis.

Good article, i probably would have done a few things differently. but a good start. Ive never thought height makes a big difference in regards to rebounding/blocked shots as opposed to height/weight ratio when it comes to defense. A good example of that would be kenneth faried and walter tavares.

Interesting stuff- that's roughly what I expected after years of Kenneth Faried at center.

Very informative, I love these type of articles. Thanks!

mgtr81 wrote:

andrei wrote:Since he shrank in height but his weight remained the same, perhaps this is an indication that, just like defence, rebounding uses a Height/Weight ratio instead of individual measurements of Height and Weight.

Correct. The larger the weight-to-height ratio is, the better a player establishes position, which turns into more rebounds and higher shooting percentages. It also has its drawbacks, though.

Great job with this analysis.

Makes sense! Thanks for the article Andrei and for the info Manu!

Interesting read, good info as usual.

Formula of success? Thin guards and fat front court

One thing I don't get though

Sim Bhullar - really tall and really fat. His defensive rebounds are pedestrian but offensive rebounds are elite. But he barely grabs above 10% of the boards. Why is that? Should he not be much better with such huge weight and high offensive board rating?

andrei wrote:One thing I don't get though

Sim Bhullar - really tall and really fat. His defensive rebounds are pedestrian but offensive rebounds are elite. But he barely grabs above 10% of the boards. Why is that? Should he not be much better with such huge weight and high offensive board rating?

Does his team play the offensive rebound?

Chilikonkarne wrote:

andrei wrote:One thing I don't get though

Sim Bhullar - really tall and really fat. His defensive rebounds are pedestrian but offensive rebounds are elite. But he barely grabs above 10% of the boards. Why is that? Should he not be much better with such huge weight and high offensive board rating?

Does his team play the offensive rebound?

In addition to this ... does he share court time with Griffin?

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