clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Ed Davis is here to get you all the rebounds

What Ed Davis lacks in point scoring, he more than makes up in rebounds.

By Natty Wallach
NBAE via Getty Images

Meet Ed Davis.

Ed Davis is the backup center for the Utah Jazz. He’s 6’-foot-10 and 30 years old. He’s never averaged 10 points per game, and he’s never played more than 25 minutes per game. The Jazz will be his sixth NBA team. While Davis may seem like a player you gloss over in your fantasy basketball drafts, I can promise you he’s worth having on your team.

Last season, Davis was the backup center for the Brooklyn Nets where he played 1446 total minutes and he pulled down 694 total rebounds. To put that number into perspective, that was the 17th highest total in the entire NBA last season, number one among players who played less than 1500 minutes. He got more rebounds than Jarrett Allen, the STARTING Center for the Brooklyn Nets (672 TRB, tied for 20th).

According to Basketball-Reference.com, there have only been three seasons in NBA history when a player played less than 1500 total minutes and accrued at least 600 rebounds:

  1. Dorie Murrey for Seattle in 1967-68, 600 TRB
  2. Hassan Whiteside for Miami in 2017-18, 618 TRB
  3. Ed Davis for Brooklyn in 2018-19, 694 TRB

Last year, Ed Davis’ per-36 minutes per game numbers would’ve been 12 points per game and 17 rebounds per game. For context, Andre Drummond, the Pistons center, was the rebound king last year and he averaged 17 PPG and 15.6 RPG.

Now the backup center for the Jazz, if Davis were to play 1600 minutes this season, and if he kept his rebound per minute rate from last season, he’d get 768 total rebounds. That would have been 12th most in 2018-19, right ahead of Steven Adams at 760.

Whiteside, the former Miami Heat big and now playing for Portland, played 1678 total minutes last year and got 817 total rebounds (10th most). Whiteside is currently getting drafted on ESPN 56th overall, and he’s 90% rostered. Ed Davis is getting drafted outside the top 150, and he’s 2.6% rostered.

Davis won’t get you much besides rebounds, but HE GETS YOU REBOUNDS. If you miss out on good big men early in the draft, or if you need help on the boards, you could really do yourself a favor by picking up Ed Davis, professional rebounder. He’ll come cheap but he’ll give you top 20, perhaps even top 10, total volume in a statistical category. That’s fantasy gold.

Next Up In Fantasy Basketball