Fourth-place Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv is finding success by crashing the boards on offense at a historically high rate.
Maccabi is making misses count at a near-historic rate
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Just eight games into its Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has already joined a short list of teams that have made offensive rebounds their calling card over the years.
In 23 seasons to date, just three other teams had ever managed to collect 22 offensive boards in as many as two games in the same season. Maccabi became the fourth such team to do so when it snared 22 to win 78-73 in Round 9 against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. The next time its rebounders take back 22 or more of their team's own misses, Maccabi will be the first team to do that three times in a season.
This is almost certainly due to an emphasis on the offensive glass by head coach Oded Kattash. Or perhaps a re-emphasis. Maccabi's performance on the offensive glass had been way up and way down since round-robin play started in 2016-17, when the team ranked next-to-last at 8.7 per game. The next two seasons, Maccabi ranked third (12.0) and then first (11.9) before dropping down again to 14th (9.2) in 2021-22, the season before Kattash arrived. Last season, Maccabi was back to second at 11.9 per game.
Taking the risk to rebound on offense
In addition to personnel, offensive rebounding is often influenced by the head coach's philosophy and tactics. Depending on the opponent and the flow of the game, the coach will often designate how many players should crash the offensive glass – given the right circumstances – and how many should stay back to defend in transition.
Some coaches habitually send more players to the offensive glass, some less. Emphasizing offensive rebounding or not carries a risk-reward balance. The extra possession often means a better shot opportunity against a now-disorganized defense. But failure to get an offensive rebound might put your defense at a disadvantage, too.
But it's probably no accident that Maccabi's league-leading 14.3 offensive boards per game is nearly double those of last-ranked Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, with 7.3. Yes, Partizan misses shots less often than Maccabi, but it's also true that Maccabi is on near-record pace by grabbing 39.2% of all its misses as compared to Partizan's league-low 25.9%. That 39.2% rate of Maccabi's is higher than any team in a decade.
Board-crashing big men
Maccabi seems to have constructed its roster with offensive rebounds in mind. Josh Nebo ranked third with 2.5 offensive boards per game in his rookie EuroLeague season with Zalgiris Kaunas and landed in Tel Aviv the next summer. He averaged 2.3 last season, ranking fifth, and is on 2.2 so far this season, ranking ninth.
Bonzie Colson, who also joined Maccabi in the summer of 2022, has made a jump from 1.7 offensive rebounds on average last season to 2.6, fourth-best in the league, so far in this one. Roman Sorkin saw his average jump from 0.8 the season before Kattash arrived to 1.8 last season. He's grabbing 1.2 per game this season. Jasiel Rivero averaged 1.9 in his rookie season last year with Valencia Basket, ranking 12th, and is now on 1.5.
Together, Colson, Nebo, Rivero and Sorkin collect 7.5 of the 14.3 misses that Maccabi takes back in the average game this season. Interestingly, 1.83-meter John DiBartolomeo is the league leader among guards in per-minute offensive boards with 2.3 prorated over 40 minutes, showing that Maccabi's prowess is a collective effort, as well.
Second chances matter
Offensive boards are all about second-chance points. In four of its five wins this season, Maccabi had more second-chance points that its opponents, and in the fifth game it was tied. Maccabi enjoyed a cumulative 77-48 advantage in second-chance points over those five victories. Those 29 extra second-half points as compared to its opponents accounted for 80.1% of Maccabi's accumulated margin of victory, 36 points, over those five games.
It's very early in the season, but already Maccabi has laid down a marker as one of the most aggressive offensive rebounding teams in the EuroLeague for many years. Only one team in EuroLeague history, Cholet Basket with 15.1 over just a 10-game regular season back in 2010-11, has averaged more boards on offense than Maccabi is now. It will be interesting to see if Maccabi challenges the longer-season mark but keeping its average at or above 14.0, which would be a first in EuroLeague history.