Before every game, Steven Adams takes a basketball and goes to hang out right under the rim.
And then he just tosses it up there and grabs it, puts it back up, tosses it again, grabs it again, finishes the tip, does it again, over and over.
It's a drill focused entirely on Adams' ability to corral and control the ball near the rim, especially on the offensive glass.
Led by Adams, the Rockets are the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA.
To be clear, not just this season's NBA. They're the best offensive rebounding team ever.
"The Rockets are grabbing more than two out of every five shots they miss," ESPN's Tim Bontemps wrote on Friday. "To put their absurd 40.5% offensive rebound rate into perspective: The gap between Houston and second-place Portland is the same between the Trail Blazers and the 16th-place Nets. No team since 1996-97 has eclipsed 38% across a full season. This is how the Rockets have the league's best offense while being dead last in 3-point shooting volume as the only team taking fewer than 30 per game."
Adams is averaging an absurd (and NBA best) 5.2 offensive rebounds per game in 22 minutes per night. He basically grabs an offensive board every four minutes.
Alperen Sengun averages 3.1 offensive rebounds a game, and Amen Thompson and Clint Capela each add 2.3 offensive rebounds per night.
It's a cheat code, really. The Rockets, on the possessions they grab offensive boards, can be way less efficient and still actually maintain a solid scoring rate relative to their opponent.
Houston is a good defensive rebounding team, too, given the presence of guys like Adams, Sengun, Thompson and Kevin Durant.
For much of the season, the Rockets have used big lineups, including ones with Adams-Sengun together and some where Thompson is the de facto point guard. That doesn't hurt.
But really, offensive rebounding is a skill, and it involves effort. And this season, Adams and the Rockets are doing it like no one ever has.
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