I wouldn't say she "stinks" as a rebounder by any means, but my impression is that she is pretty average at it, and that comes entirely from game watching, not statistics. Statistics only show you how many rebounds she got, not how many she could have or should have gotten, which is of course subjective. Others may have a different way of looking at it.
I would say the same thing about Stefanie Dolson vs. Maya Moore. If you compare Stef's rebound/min last year to Maya's rebound/min during her senior year, they are almost identical. But when I watched Maya in college I saw an exceptional rebounder. Stef is an "OK" rebounder to me. Others will rightly point out that Stef is more adept at blocking out so others can collect the board. Point taken. However, you could also argue that last year, with Maya gone and no long bodies at either of the forward spots, there would be more rebounding opportunities for Stef to collect. You could then take the analysis in any number of other additional ways, any/all of which could affect the statistics one way or the other.
So in the end you just watch the games and take everything together. It's true that Griner blocks shots and that someone else on her team is picking up a good % of those rejections. (Not all of them, though.) Her rebounding prowess or lack thereof is by no means the only indicator of her defensive impact. Her defensive impact is huge, more than any other player in fact. But to me she's only an average rebounder. Even with 14 rebounds tonight, which is probably a few more than what most of those 'exceptional' 6'0" tall rebounders would have gotten. Confused yet?
