Tarris Reed Jr. leads the NBA preseason in rebounds — 38 total and a 17-board high

SAN ANTONIO — Oct. 15, 2026 — Through 53 finished preseason games, no one has rebounded like Tarris Reed Jr. The San Antonio Spurs rookie center owns the exhibition season’s single-game high with 17 rebounds at Utah on Oct. 12, and he also leads the league in total preseason rebounds with 38 — in only 71 minutes across four games.

That works out to 9.5 rebounds a game and 19.3 per 36 minutes, the best per-minute rate of any player who has logged at least 60 preseason minutes. Fifteen of the 38 have come on the offensive glass.

The 17-rebound night

Reed came off the bench in the 119-109 loss to the Jazz and finished with four points on 1-of-6 shooting, 17 rebounds (eight offensive, nine defensive), four steals and a block in 24 minutes, with a plus-5 rating. Ten of those rebounds came in the first half, six of them on the offensive end.

The #Spurs got a good one in Tarris Reed Jr.

Here are all 17 of his rebounds against the Jazz. Can he become their second-string center? I think Wemby has the starting job pretty much locked up pic.twitter.com/35xIUiTphQ

— Jonah Kubicek (@JonahKubicek) October 13, 2026

He did not sound satisfied afterward. “Not to nitpick, but if this was UConn, coach (Dan Hurley) would be yelling at me because I had 10 boards in the first half, (then) I eased up a little bit in the beginning of the second,” Reed told reporter Tom Orsborn. “Could have easily walked away with 20, 25 rebounds, so I got to be better.”

Asked where the rebounding comes from, Reed pointed to “footwork, timing, and really just effort,” and credited UConn assistant Kimani Young, who he said was “always on me to rebound, being a monster, being a force, multiple efforts.”

Single-game rebounding board

Top preseason rebounding games through Oct. 14, per the official box scores:

• Tarris Reed Jr., Spurs: 17 at Utah, Oct. 12 (24 minutes)
• Khaman Maluach, Suns: 15 vs. San Antonio, Oct. 10 (23 minutes)
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Heat: 15 vs. Brooklyn, Oct. 14 (24 minutes)
• Tolu Smith, Pistons: 13 at Washington, Oct. 10 (16 minutes)
• Ivica Zubac, Pacers: 13 at Oklahoma City, Oct. 13 (18 minutes)

Reed and Detroit’s Tolu Smith share the single-game offensive-rebound high at eight. Antetokounmpo’s 15 came inside his 20-point, 15-rebound, nine-assist line in Miami’s 144-128 win, one assist shy of a triple-double.

Total rebounds leaders

• Tarris Reed Jr., Spurs: 38 in 4 games (71 minutes)
• Charles Bassey, Warriors: 35 in 5 games (89 minutes)
• Yaxel Lendeborg, Warriors: 33 in 4 games (90 minutes)
• Joan Beringer, Timberwolves: 33 in 5 games (90 minutes)
• Nick Richards, Heat: 31 in 4 games (66 minutes)
• Kel’el Ware, Bucks: 31 in 4 games (96 minutes)

Reed got there with the fewest minutes of anyone on that list. Bassey and Beringer have each played a fifth game, and Ware has needed 25 more minutes to reach 31. Among players with at least 60 minutes, Richards (16.9 per 36) is the only one within three rebounds per 36 of Reed’s 19.3.

Game by game

Reed’s preseason so far: six rebounds in 17 minutes against Atlanta on Oct. 8, 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting with six rebounds in nine minutes at Phoenix on Oct. 10, the 17 at Utah, and four points, nine rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes as the Spurs beat Phoenix 123-103 on Oct. 14 for their first preseason win.

Tarris Reed grabbed 17 rebounds in the Spurs preseason game against the Utah Jazz last night.

He credits @CoachKimani for becoming an elite rebounder. pic.twitter.com/ASOakKeklX

— Huskies In The Pros (@HuskyPros) October 13, 2026

The 6-foot-10, 270-pound center was the No. 26 pick in the 2026 draft after starting his college career at Michigan and finishing it at UConn, where he averaged 14.7 points and 9.0 rebounds on a team that reached the 2026 national championship game. At 23, he is an older rookie in a San Antonio frontcourt built around Victor Wembanyama, and the glass is where he is making his case for backup minutes.

Elsewhere on the single-game board

Michael Porter Jr.’s 27 points for Brooklyn in Miami on Oct. 14 moved him to second on the preseason scoring board, one point behind Austin Reaves’ 28 against Golden State on Oct. 13. Payton Pritchard’s 11 assists against Charlotte on Oct. 14 tied Trae Young’s 11 for Washington against Brooklyn on Oct. 12 for the assists high. Donovan Clingan’s five blocks at Sacramento matched Robert Williams III and Myles Turner, and Jared McCain’s 6-of-12 from three against Indiana joined Miles Kelly and Bennett Stirtz at six made threes.

Preseason numbers reset when the 2026-27 regular season opens on Oct. 20. WhyNBA’s league-leaders and stats pages will carry the live boards from opening night.