Whenever a point guard can grab a rebound, he puts his team at an advantage.  When a point guard grabs a rebound on the defensive end, he is able to start a fast break on his own since the ball is already in the points hands (no outlet passes are needed).  When a point grabs an offensive rebound, he has one of two options, pull it out and restart the offense, or attack, taking advantage of the defense being out of position.

In my research, it was interesting to notice that there are two different types of point guards that succeed when it comes to rebounding the basketball, depending on whether or not it is an offensive or defensive rebound.

Defensive Rebounding/Bigger Point Guards

The point guards who dominate the defensive boards are the usual suspects.  The PGs who you tend to think of when you think about point guards who can rebound (because if you are like me, you think about this a ton).  Guys like Jason Kidd, Tyreke Evans, and Deron Williams who know how to use their size to their advantage when crashing the boards (All these guys grab over 10% of their respective team’s defensive rebounds).

Jason Kidd is thought of to be the best rebounding point guard in the league, and the numbers back that line of thinking up.  Part of the reason is that he is such a smart player, he knows how to read the ball off the rim and position his body to get there.

Here, Kidd reads that the foul shot for Tony Parker is going to end up short, so he rushes in to cut off Parker.  The ball bounces right to Kidd and he starts up court.

And here, Kidd reads the ball off of the rim and gets into the area where he thinks it will land.  It ends up close enough for him to grab, and he starts up court after getting the rim.

Kidd’s smarts isn’t the only reason why he gets a lot of defensive rebounds.  Kidd also uses his size very well when going after boards:

On this play, the ball is up in the air for grabs and the Clippers player is within arm’s reach of the basketball when Kidd reaches over the top and grabs the rebound.

And here is Jason Kidd versus Chris Kaman as the shot goes up.  Kaman should be able to just reach up and grab the rebound, but Kidd boxes him out so well that Kaman isn’t in position to grab the basketball (in fact, he can’t even get his hands up for it).

Other guys use their size pretty well too.  Here is Tyreke Evans grabbing an offensive rebound.

And below is Deron Williams using his size to prevent the smaller Aaron Brooks from getting to the basketball.

Offensive Rebounding/Quicker Point Guards

While the bigger guys are the ones who dominate the defensive glass (at least when it comes to point guards), the smaller, quicker guys are the ones who do a good job on the offensive glass.  Don’t believe me, well, let’s look at the numbers.  Kyle Lowry, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, T.J. Ford, Ty Lawson, Jrue Holiday, and Nate Robinson are all in the top ten of Offensive Rebound Rate among point guards who played more than 20 minutes per game in over 20 games last year.

In my opinion, there are two reasons for this.  The first is that the quicker PGs can get to any long rebounds that bounce to the perimeter:

Here, Rajon Rondo sees the ball come off the and he is simply the quickest to the basketball, and he is able to secure the rebound.

The second reason quicker guys are able to grab rebounds is that they trust their speed.  Usually point guards get back on defense as the shot goes up, but the quicker guys can go in, survey the situation, and see if they can get the rebound.  If they don’t see a lane to grab the board, they are quick enough to get back on defense and prevent anything from happening in transition.

Here, with Paul Pierce shooting, Rajon Rondo is the guy who is supposed to get back on defense.  However, he sees a lane to the rim and he attacks it, tipping the basketball in.  If he would have missed or not gotten the rebound, Rondo is quick enough to get back on defense.