It was only a few years ago that the NBA orthodoxy seemed to declare the offensive rebound a lost cause.
Crashing the boards in search of putbacks was deemed too risky a tactic by coaches horrified by the prospect of giving up easy fast-break baskets. There was a feeling that whatever you’d gain in second-chance buckets you’d more than lose in transition. Teams collected a record-low number of offensive rebounds per game in 2017-18. The rate hasn’t ticked up much since.