NBA standings ordered by rebound rate: Zach Edey is making a massive impact for Memphis

The NBA season is almost a quarter of the way through but it still feels like we're learning a lot about what's real and what's not. Between hot shooting stretches and a depressing amount of star injuries, narratives and statistics can still take volatile swings one way or the other.

According to an analysis by Krishna Narsu with Nylon Calculus, rebounding percentage may be able to be trusted around the 15-game mark, which is a threshold the league has recently passed. Though there are obviously teams that have spent much or all of the season less than the whole, this seems like as good a time as any to check in on this stat.

Rebounding is an extremely effective means to create extra possessions for your offense and manufacture points on the offensive end, while limiting your opponents' ability to do so by controlling the defensive glass keeps the possession battle in your favor on the other end.

It takes a certain amount of discipline, effort and yes, size to be a dominant rebounding team. It is also far from the be-all and end-all of winning basketball games. In a crude look at it, the Conference Finalists in the last four season finished an average of 11th in the league in rebounding percentage, ranging from fourth (Nuggets in 2023) all the way down to 26th (Mavericks in 2024).

Here, we'll outline which teams are looking on the glass so far this season.

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NBA standings ordered by rebound rate:

The league leaders last season were the Knicks at 52.7 percent, while the Rockets led the league at 53.0 percent the year before, so these numbers are right in line with what we've seen recently.

The Memphis Grizzlies and their massive rookie center, Zach Edey, are pacing the league in rebounding at this point in the season. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder are at the bottom of the league with their pint-sized lineups trying to stay afloat after injuries to their big men.

Within the top five, the Raptors, Rockets, Grizzlies and Hornets are getting their numbers largely through a focus on crashing the offensive glass, as they sit at first, second, third and fourth in the league in offensive rebounding rate, respectively.

Edey is mashing opponents on the offensive glass for fourth in the league in individual offensive rebounding rate (min. 15 minutes per game), snatching over three of them per game in just 20 minutes each outing. At 7-foot-4, he's just so difficult to keep off the boards and this part of his game has predictably translated extremely well from college.

Edey is not alone, though. According to Cleaning the Glass, he is one of five players on the roster who are in the 80th percentile or better for their position in offensive rebounding. Jake LaRavia, Brandon Clarke, Marcus Smart and John Konchar are all crashing the offensive glass with reckless abandon, flying in from all over the court.

On the other hand, Memphis is just 23rd in the league in defensive rebounding percentage and 27th in opponent second-chance points per game. They've actually struggled to keep opponents from using one of their greatest strengths against them.

They do like to get out and run, playing in transition more often than any team in the league, so perhaps this is contributing to some missed defensive rebounding opportunities. Some of their other frontcourt players like Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jay Huff are relatively poor rebounders for their careers as well, adding to the problem.

Down in Houston, everyone's favorite bench duo of Amen Thompson and Tari Eason are using their elite athleticism to help the Rockets control the boards on both ends, as they sit in the top ten for both categories. Seriously, if you haven't watched these two come into the game and create chaos in every corner of the court, you're missing out.

The Rockets' ability to create extra shots for themselves while simultaneously limiting their opponents' extra opportunities is an extremely underrated part of their success so far this season. Coach Ime Udoka had dominating the boards high on his to-do list coming into the season and they have not disappointed.

The Clippers, who are tied for third overall, are the only team in the top five doing so on the strength of their defensive rebounding, where they are first in the league at 74.6 percent. Their No. 5-ranked defense, in addition to the plethora of talented defenders, is buoyed by their ability to limit opponents to one shot. They allow just 12.1 second-chance points per game, which is the second-fewest in the league.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Thunder can't seem to keep a player over 6-foot-6 on the court for too long and are not rebounding well at all. That said, they have the No. 1 defense in the league, so it's tough to complain. They fly around the court generating turnovers while limiting offensive turnovers themselves to win the possession battle that way instead of on the glass. After the long-awaited debut of Isaiah Hartenstein, they are looking to shore up this weakness while continuing to wreak havoc before the shot goes up, which would make this elite team even scarier.

It shouldn't be too surprising to see the 76ers in their season from hell at the bottom of the list as well. Joel Embiid has obviously had an ... eventful start to the year and they seriously lack size at every other position on the floor.

Overall, this list shows a bit of a hodgepodge of teams up and down the list of wins leaders throughout the league at the moment. Six of the top 10 are over .500, while the other four have lost more games than they've won, showing a weaker correlation between the two variables on the surface. The Rockets and Hornets are the only two teams in the top ten in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage, but both have seen differing results in the win/loss column as a result.

As teams get healthier, we may see some larger shifts in some of these numbers, so keep an eye out for which teams will remain disciplined in their approach and which may start to tail off as the season progresses.