In the back half of the 2010’s, a new role began to emerge as a key ingredient for the average NBA team - The Rim-Runner. With the rise of positionless basketball, big men are more athletic than ever allowing them to get up-and-down the floor with guards and wings. The rim-runner role is all about energy, rebounding, garbage buckets, and to a lesser extent, rim protection. Now, there are star players who are great rim-runners as part of their skill set. Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Ben Simmons can all rim-run at a high level, but no one would classify them as rim-runners. The traditional rim-runner is fairly limited offensively in terms of pure skill. Clint Capela, Dwight Powell, DeAndre Jordan, and JaVale McGee come to mind. So, why are these types of players so valuable in the NBA right now?
THEY’RE CHEAP... USUALLY
Not a lot of rim-runners are going to command a $20M/yr salary because most teams know that they aren’t worth the money. The Houston Rockets traded Clint Capela shortly after signing him for 5 years and $90 million because he was so limited offensively that they could not keep him on the floor in tight games. His defense could have helped but his sub-50% free throw shooting nullified his impact. Almost the same goes for Tristan Thompson. After playing out of his mind and rim-running the Golden State Warriors to death in the 2016 Finals, Thompson got a nice payday from the Cavaliers in the range of $18 million/year just like Capela. This screwed the Cavs payroll and now Thompson has one of the least valuable contracts in the league.
However, guys like Dwight Powell, DeAndre Jordan, and Mason Plumlee are getting paid in the $9-$14 million range. This is almost perfect value for a high-level rim-runner (if you’re not a rookie or taking a pay cut for a contender). These guys are the fifth or sixth offensive option on their teams AT BEST. The best rim-runners will average something like 14 points and 10 rebounds a game, but this normally happens on a bad-to-average team. Dwight Powell was averaging 9 ppg and 7 rpg and shooting a blistering 63.8% from the field before his Achilles injury. Jordan is averaging 8 ppg and 10 rpg.
There are the rim-runners who take pay cuts and these are some of the most valuable players in the NBA if they know their role. The Lakers have two of these types of players - Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee. Getting paid a combined $6.5 million this season, both Howard and McGee have provided exceptional rebounding, rim protection, and very efficient (albeit limited) offensive production with field goal percentages above 70% and 60%, respectively.
DEFENSIVE VERSATILITY
A lot of rim-runners have similar builds: 6’9” - 7’0”, 230-260 lbs, and wing-like athleticism. This allows for lots of switches on defense for their respective teams. Most times, the switch involves a post player switching onto a wing, but a rim-runner might switch on to a guard and be able to stay in front long enough for the defense to recover. This is probably the least-touted ability of the league’s best rim-runners. If executed successfully, this strategy can slow down and maybe even halt opposing offenses and reduce instances of foul trouble for the rim-runner’s team because the mismatch that would normally be created by the switch would no longer be there.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
Rim-runners are nice to have, but they can usually be exploited on the offensive side of the ball. When the game slows down and is primarily played in the half-court (e.g. the playoffs), rim-runners lose a lot of their value because they usually have a very undeveloped post/back-to-the-basket game. You’re not gonna see these types of players pull a Dream Shake or Black Tornado on a defender. They’re gonna try to pick and roll to the basket and try to draw a foul or wait for a shot to go up and try to get an offensive rebound and garbage bucket. Due to the limited offensive ability, the opposing team’s star forward will guard the rim-runner so they do not expend too much energy on defense.
As long as the game remains positionless with an emphasis on pace-and-space, rim-runners will always be wanted in the NBA. Once the game shifts to a slower style, however, their stock will tumble.