Andrea Bargnani has been showing the consistency on the offensive end we all hoped he would display this season averaging 17.2 points. With his offensive game rounding into shape, and Jermaine O’neal’s tutelage showing itself on his block totals (he currently has 15 more than Chris Bosh).

The next step we need, and expect to see in Andrea’s development obviously comes on the defensive end, where he is only averaging 6.3 rebounds total, which means players like Deng, Durant, Iggy, Ilyasova, Blair (in 18 minutes a game, might I add) and Melo rebound at a higher clip than our 7 foot big-man.

The good news is he already has as much rebounds in 46 games (288) as he had in an entire season worth of games in 07-08 where he played every game but 4.  Of course minutes per game is playing a factor but it is an encouraging sign to see Andrea’s rebounding rate increasing year after year.

Over the month of January, Andrea averaged 18.2 points and almost 7 rebounds (6.7) over a span of 14 games, being on the closer side to 7 this month leads to the possibility might be able to crack 8 within a year or two.

When that happens, Andrea will have entered elite territory and the $50 million dollar extension we signed him to is going to seem like a bargain.