Front court
Thirdly, factor in rebounds. While the game of scoring and assists can happen to anyone on the basketball court, perhaps even favoring a back-court player, the rebounds evens things up dramatically. Rebounds happen in the world of the front court folks. They hang around the basket, and when the shot is missed by either side, great rebounders understand trajectory and positioning.
Ten Rebounds is a tough matter. To get it with ten points is a tougher matter. But to get ten points and ten rebounds and ten assists herculean unto itself. It requires a player to bang the boards, shoot the shot, and pass the ball to the open shooter. Even still, there are a handful of players who can do this.
After every shot, there are no less than six pairs of hands trying to bring the ball down. Factor in the rotations of teams and playing minutes and you have about a 50 percent chance (playing time) at 16.7 percent chance (number of players in position) of 55 percent (missed shots mark) at 180 shots per game.
Or you can simply take an average number of NBA rebounds per season at 6,900 divided by 82 games to get 84 rebounds per game. Now of that total, you have 26 players competing (13 players per team). Eventually you can weight the number toward front court starters, but in either case, you end up with a starting front court player pulling in six rebounds per game. Of course, some players do a far better job of it. But those players specialize in defending the rim.
They typically do not score, nor do they assist very well.
But then we make it really interesting. Now we add in blocking shots.
Next: Blocking Ain't Easy