Bismack Biyombo has steadily improved as the season has progressed. He hasn't always been consistent, but there's no question that when he has gotten consistent minutes, he's been our team's best defensive player.
Here are Biz's stats for the first half of the season in games where he has gotten at least 24 minutes. Naturally, most of these games have come over the last 9 games of the season as he's been starting.
The first thing I notice is that in every game he's gotten 30 or more minutes, he's recorded double digit rebounds, averaging 11.25 rebounds per contest in those games. 4.25 of those are on the offensive end. He's also averaging 4 blocks per game.
Biz is averaging an impressive 9.57 rebounds per game in which he appears at least 24 minutes. He's averaging a rebound every 3'02" minutes he's on the court in those games. By comparison, Dwight Howard gets a rebound every 2'29"; Kevin Love, 1 per every 2'51".
Biz's season average is 1 rebound per 3'40", which is above average for his position. Howard got a rebound every 3'14" seconds as rookie in which he played 24 minutes or more (78 games). Kevin Love got a rebound an amazing 2'47" as a rookie. 2'54" in 24+ minute games.
Of course, Bismack is best known for his blocking. In the 7 games where he has gotten 24 minutes or more, he's amassed 23 blocks, which comes out to be 3.29 blocks per game. That's higher than the league average.*
Bismack averages a block every 8'50" seconds in these games, and a block exactly every 10' on the season. By comparison, Serge Ibaka gets a block every 8'32" and 3.2 blocks per game.
In his rookie season, Ibaka averaged 1.34 blocks per game, 2 blocks per game in which he got 24 minutes or more, and a block every 13'38".
JaVale McGee gets 2.7 blocks per game and a block every 10'38". As a rookie, he got 1 block per game, a block every 15'14". In games where he got 24 minutes or more as a rookie he averaged 2 rebounds per game and a block every 13'23".
Certainly 7 games is a small sample size. Hopefully, by season's end, I'll be able to have a 41 game sample size, which is the number of games we have left. That would require Biz to play 24 minute in all of our remaining games. However, what Bismack Biyombo has done thus far this season (9.8 rebounds, 3.6 blocks, 8.1 points per 36 minutes) has been quite impressive. His rebounding totals are clearly climbing, as well, as he gets minutes, so I expect that number to be in double digits by season's end. As we saw last night, he is becoming more comfortable on the offensive end. He's never going to be a dynamic scorer, but I imagine he'll consistently give us 8-12 ppg going forward and probably 10-15 over the next two seasons. He is scoring at a .581 clip in those 24+ minute games, though.
There's no denying that Bismack Biyombo has come a long way from that player no one knew anything about who looked lost on the floor. He still has some work to do, especially on the boards, but he's made huge strides in so many areas of his game over the short season that there's no reason to think he won't become a solid and consistent NBA rebounder. The numbers indicate that he's already above average.
***(Of course, it's only 7 games, and doesn't omit the games in which Serge Ibaka had less than 24 minutes. For those curious, Serge Ibaka's BPG this season are a whopping 3.71 in which he plays 24 or more minutes. One block every 7'19".)
