Who is the best rebounder in the NBA?

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love (42) holds back Dallas Mavericks forward Brian Cardinal (C) in front of Timberwolves’ Michael Beasley (R) during the first half of their NBA basketball game in the Target Center in Minneapolis, March 7, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Miller (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve tackled the MVP race, triple-dozens, point guard characteristics and three-point shooters, and now it’s time to take a look at rebounding.

To be eligible, a player has to meet the following criteria:

1. He must appear in at least 50 games.

2. He must play in at least 24.0 minutes a game.

I took the top 30 players in terms of Total Rebounding Rate (the number of rebounds a player gets as a percentage of total available rebounds available while he’s on the floor) and plotted Offensive Rebounding Rate (ORR%) against Defensive Rebounding Rate (DRR%).

Here is the list of eligible players (in alphabetical order): Andrew Bogut, Carlos Boozer, Kwame Brown (yes, Kwame Brown), Marcus Camby, Tyson Chandler, DeMarcus Cousins, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Marcin Gortat, Blake Griffin, Chuck Hayes, Roy Hibbert, J.J. Hickson, Nene Hilario, Al Horford, Dwight Howard, Kris Humphries, Serge Ibaka, Josh Smith, Al Jefferson, Amir Johnson, DeAndre Jordan, David Lee, Kevin Love, JaVale McGee, Greg Monroe, Lamar Odom, Emeka Okafor and Zach Randolph.

Below is the chart. As always, click on it to see a bigger version.

A few takeaways:

— The best place to be on the graph is the top-right. Despite Camby being a little better in both stats, I’d say that Kevin Love deserves the best rebounder in the league title given the amount of minutes he plays and the scoring burden he’s asked to carry. This is part of the reason why I included him in my short list of franchise players.

— Kevin Garnett really gets on the defensive glass (#5 in DRR% amongst eligible players), but he doesn’t get on the offensive glass very well. In fact, guards Dwyane Wade and Russell Westbrook both beat KG in ORR%.

— Marcin Gortat was only player in the Top 30 in TRR% that was traded this season and he’s the closest thing that the Suns have had in a franchise center in some time. He’s averaging 13/9 in 29 minutes since joining the Suns, though he only recently got the starting job.

— Best qualified offensive rebounder not on this list? LaMarcus Aldridge (10.2 ORR%). DaJaun Blair (14.7) deserves mention, but he only plays 21.5 minutes a game.

— Best qualified defensive rebounder not on this list? Luis Scola (21.6 DRR%), who is #31 in TRR%, so he just missed the list.

— Just three teams had two players in the Top 30 in TRR%: the Clippers (Griffin, Jordan), the Lakers (Gasol, Odom — Bynum only played 49 games) and the Hawks (Horford, Smith). The Clippers and Lakers are both in the Top 6 in team TRR%, but the Hawks are 21st, which means Horford and Smith aren’t getting a lot of help from the other guys on the team. The three teams not represented in the Top 30 are the Heat (3rd), Sixers (19th) and Knicks (28th). The Heat gang rebound while the Sixers and Knicks clearly struggle on the glass.

— All 30 players are power forwards or centers, which is no surprise. Odom is the only real perimeter player on the list. The top rebounding guard is Landry Fields (#50 in TRR%). Dwyane Wade (#59) and Thabo Sefolosha (#60) are the next highest guards in that statistic. The best rebounding point guard is Russell Westbrook (#91), with Jason Kidd (#92) and Rajon Rondo (#97) close behind.

— I was surprised to see Paul Millsap (#36) miss the list, but that probably has to do with Al Jefferson. It’s tough to rebound really well when you play a lot of minutes alongside another really good rebounder.