Kiwi Steve in the NBA #10: The Old Stomping Ground
Off Board Excellence
Steven Adams may well be having a career year. It won’t necessarily look like that from the state of his stats considering he’s scoring at the lowest rate since his rookie season (largely down to his start to the season because he’s averaging over 9ppg since the start of February), but he’s doing almost literally everything else he could possibly be asked to do.
Absolutely crushing his per game assists PB. Very much in with a chance of averaging double figure rebounds for the first time in his career. Right up there at the top of the league in terms of box outs and screen assists. He currently has the fourth-best offensive rating of any player on any team. He leads the Memphis Grizzlies in plus/minus. We could go on and on but you get the idea.
The expansion of his role since moving to Memphis has been a thrill but it’s still important to keep an eye on old faithful now and then. Gotta give a little loving to the ones that might otherwise get taken for granted. In the case of Steven Adams, that means offensive rebounds.
Funaki is a magnificent offensive rebounder, big deal. We already knew that. He’s been top eight in the NBA for total ORebs in each of the last six seasons and in terms of Oreb% he’s been top five in each of the last five. If there were a Family Feud question of Most Commonly Known Things About Steven Adams then him being one of the best in the business at grabbing offensive rebounds would be right up there with being extremely strong, hailing from New Zealand, having a large quantity of siblings, and looking like Jason Momoa.
But that’s exactly why his prowess in that area can get overlooked during a season like this one. Hiding the fact that he’s doing genuinely historic things. Like, let’s establish this right off the bat: Steven Adams is the best offensive rebounder in the NBA. He’s been one of the best for many years, now he is indisputably the best. What other conclusion are you supposed to draw from the same bloke leading the league in total off boards, offensive rebounding percentage, and ORebs per game?
It’s not even close, man. Shout out Statsmuse for the graphics btw.
At which point we need to start talking about all-time seasons and with 307 offensive boards already and another 12 games left to play... how high could he creep up the standings for the most ever in a single season?
Well he’s getting nowhere near the top, that’s for sure. Moses Malone’s record 587 off boards for the 1978-79 Houston Rockets is miles beyond what Adams could feasibly end up with. Malone has the three best ever totals as well as five of the top seven. Dennis Rodman and Jayson Williams are the two guys keeping him company there. Crucially, none of those seasons have occurred since the turn of the millennium. Those lads all played in the days before three pointers fully took over when rebounds fell more predictably to the big men (shoot from further away, the ball bounces further away if you miss, right?). In this current error that just ain’t gonna happen.
Righto then, what about since 2000? Yeah now we’re talking. The only bloke to have topped 400 ORebs in a season this millennium is Andre Drummond. 440 in 2013-14, 437 in 2014-15, 423 in 2018-19, and also for good measure 399 in 2017-18. In the two most recent of those Drummond seasons, he was the guy keeping Adams from leading the league - Adams having reached 384 and 391 in his last two years with OKC.
Which means that Adams isn’t even gonna match his own best total. At his per game average he’ll add another 36 boards, a healthy month might take him as high as 350 overall. Don’t sleep on that achievement though. It would be only the tenth such instance of 350+ ORebs in a season since that 2000 cut-off... and three of those seasons would be his own to go with five from Drummond (plus DeAndre Jordan and Elton Brand).
Except you have to remember that he used to play around 32-33 mins a night in those late OKC days. With Memphis this year he’s down around 26 minutes per game which is by far the least of anyone in that kind of range. Let alone with the 200+ assists (and counting) that he’s dished out. And that’s the greatness of this season: he’s putting himself in historical contexts thanks to some hugely efficient stat-logging despite barely playing more than half the available minutes for his team.
So let’s talk efficiency then. Look at the OReb% numbers and it’s remarkable. There’s still a chance that Adams might nudge ahead of Drummond’s 2014-15 season by the end of things and, either way, he’s still on course for a top ten all-time campaign. Even if he drops off slightly he’ll still be the only non-Drummond bloke to grab more than 17.5% of available offensive boards in the past quarter century.
Something to keep an eye on over the remaining dozen game, aye?
Old Mates
It feels like we can put the New Orleans Pelicans debacle to bed now. Steven Adams is having an immense time of thing with the Grizzlies in terms of his overall impact on winning (to borrow a phrase from his coach) and he’s displayed that in blunt terms to the Pelicans when he’s come up against them with Memphis - including outperforming the dude they traded him for. Again, the Jonas Valanciunas-Steven Adams trade was about a lot more than just those two but it does still help with them pesky narratives.
So any lingering annoyance at how things panned out at his last team is irrelevant. It’s been overcome, it’s been redeemed. The team he was at before the Pelicans though... like a lingering ghost there remained some unfinished business to attend to. Even though the trade was not unexpected, the nature of NBA trades and transactions tend not to allow much room to say goodbye. That wouldn’t be so bad had the pandemic not meant that every time he’s been back to Oklahoma City since it’s been in an empty arena. Until now, that is.
The Thunder are a young franchise, only moving to Oklahoma City in 2008. It’s a short history but a rich history and Steven Adams has played a major role in it all. The 530 games that he played for the franchise is toped only by Russell Westbrook (821), Nick Collison (602), and Kevin Durant (561). You already know that he was a beloved character on so many good playoff teams, a guy that was drafted by the franchise and developed into who he is today. They adore him there. And every now and then it’s still kinda buzzy to think of him as playing anywhere else. Such as when Memphis use ‘12’ as short-hand for Ja Morant when Steven Adams used to wear that number for so many years (although the #4 he wears now is a tribute to Nick ‘Mr Thunder’ Collison – another OKC connection).
It’s those fans who deserved a chance to show their appreciation as much as anything else. Adams’ first game back in OKC was with the Pelicans on New Year’s Eve 2020 and they played him a lovely tribute video but the recorded audio applause that they filled the arena with simply wasn’t quite the same, despite the best of intentions. So yeah, the true welcome back was something beautiful...
OKC only traded him because they were rebuilding and being a rebuilding team means heaps of player turnover. Thus there are only five dudes remaining who played with Adams in his last season there (2019-20): Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Mike Muscala, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley... and Isaiah Roby who only played three games that term. But the fans are the same and that’s the whole point.
Weird start to this game. The invocations and the anthem and the line-up introductions were all done and the players took off their tracksuits ahead of the tip-off... when everybody realised that both teams had turned up in their white uniforms. It was like a snow day out there. Not something you see too often, even the refs were laughing about it...
It was Memphis who made the mistake so the start of the game was delayed a few minutes while they dashed back to the locker room to swap into their dark blue unis instead. Problem solved. Adams dutifully won the tip and within two minutes already had two offensive boards.
Needless to say the Grizzlies won this game handily. Took a 12-point lead out of the first quarter and remained thoroughly in control, leading for all but 25 seconds, although OKC did close it up slightly in the fourth for a 125-118 final score. Steven Adams had 9 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 assists. 7 of those 16 being offensive boards. Seven Grizz dudes scored in double figures while a couple of Adams’ buddies led the way for the Thunder: Darius Bazley with 29 points and 10 rebounds while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points with 7 assists.
This was the fifth time that Steven Adams has played against OKC since he left. Probably to be expected against a rebuilding team but he’s torched them pretty much every time (although not always leading to wins, let it be known). Those five games include his only career triple double and also the biggest ever win in NBA history. His box scores against the Thunder...
31 Dec 2020 – NOP @ OKC (W 113-80):
31 MIN | 14 PTS (7/13 FG) | 10 REB (6 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | +15
6 Jan 2021 – OKC @ NOP (L 111-110):
34 MIN | 10 PTS (4/5 FG, 2/5 FT) | 11 REB (2 OFF) | 10 AST | 1 STL | +4
2 Dec 2021 – OKC @ MEM (W 152-79):
21 MIN | 9 PTS (2/2 FG, 5/6 FT) | 8 REB (2 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 BLK | +39
20 Dec 2021 – OKC @ MEM (L 102-99):
20 MIN | 3 PTS (1/5 FG, 1/1 FT) | 14 REB (5 OFF) | 3 AST | -3
13 Mar 2022 – MEM @ OKC (W 125-118):
25 MIN | 9 PTS (4/7 FG, 1/1 FT) | 16 REB (7 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 BLK | +14
Across those five games he averages 9.0 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game in only 26.4 minutes, with an offensive rating of 133 and a defensive rating of 99. His free throw percentage against the Thunder is his second highest against any team (69.2% vs 72.3% against Toronto). There ya go. Emphatic.
Drip Drip Drip
Not sure when it was that ‘drip’ became the only word you’re allowed to use in describing NBA fashion but that’s where we’re at now, all goods. Anyway Steven Adams is the drippiest son of a bitch in the entire NBA as we all know. He denies it... but the secret to fashion is being cool and the secret to being cool is not letting people think you’re trying to be cool. It’s gotta appear subconscious. You wanna have that air of: “What, this? Oh this is just something I threw on”. And since Steven Adams literally looks like he’s just thrown on whatever was at the top of the fresh washing pile... the evidence is irrefutable.
Nobody else dresses like him. Tow-breathin’ slides in the middle of winter. Shorts or trackies. The Stony Creek jacket. Sometimes there’s a beanie or a hat (haven’t seen the deerstalker for a while). Generally a cheap tee, Mickey Mouse has been getting a bit of exposure lately. There’s been Rick & Morty shirts, that NASA shirt. All sorts. No dramas. Just Steve being Steve. For the people, of the people.
Give It A Whirl
Proof that he practices it. Told ya so.
SLAM DUNKS
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