In part that's true (I do think you're underrating his on-an-island defense, as no other player in the last 3-4 seasons has been more effective), but you can apply that reasoning to every single great NBA defender, they all benefitted from schemes, teammates, and coaching, allowing them to be effective on that end, and play to their strengths. I look at it like this, since every ATG defender benefits from the support around them - who has more influence, impact, control and roles on that end other than Draymond?
Nobody.
Draymond's not in a position where he can maximize rebound opportunities because of all the roles he plays on defense - he can't afford to camp by the paint waiting for boards or hunt for them, because he's doing a million other things on that end, that are just as important/impactful as rebounding, some even more. I hope you're not putting that much emphasis on rebounding simply because it's a stat in the box score?
I posted this a couple years ago -
"One thing I'd add is his rebounding ability -
Contested DREB:
Whiteside grabs 2.7 a game
Cousins grabs 2.5 a game
Drummond grabs 2.4 a game
DeAndre grabs 2.3 a game
KAT grabs 2.2 a game
Draymond grabs 2.2 a game
Also ranks near the top in DREB Win% and REB Win% too.
Which is insane not only considering he's only 6'7" and pulling down a similar amount of contested DREBs as the elite rebounders who've at least three inches on him, but he's doing it while not living in the paint like they do. To patrol the perimeter and defend all the ISO, spot up and off screen possessions he does as well as having the energy/ability to crash the glass like that is......
Not only is he one of the best players at defending any type of shot, but he's also one of the best players at denying teams from getting a second chance opportunity on the boards."
In this year's playoffs, Draymond's averaging 4.7 contested rebounds a game, to put that into perspective, Gobert is averaging 4.8 and Embiid is averaging 4.3 - he's averaging the same amount of contested rebounds as two 7fters, both of whom are stationed in the paint more than he is. Not only do they have the advantage of being bigger to grab rebounds, but they also have more opportunities to grab these type of rebounds because of their role on that end, yet Draymond STILL averages the same amount of contested rebounds as they do.
That shyt is insane.
Thompson's one and only job was to rebound - Draymond had 10000x more jobs on the defensive end to take of (jobs that require him to defend stretch bigs, and switch onto guards regularly, taking him away from the paint). Folks were criticizing him for not guarding LeBron, now he's getting blamed because he wasn't there to stop Thompson from getting offensive rebounds. If Draymond's only job was to rebound in the GS/CLE series', Thompson would be glued to the bench for the entirety of them.
