(Associated Press)

The 76ers have Andrew Bynum, the league’s second-leading rebounding center from a year ago, on their roster. The first is Dwight Howard, a teammate last season of Jason Richardson’s.

When you’ve got a guy like Howard, who pulls in 14.5 rebounds per game, it tends to pull away rebounding opportunities from yourself.

Howard’s not Richardson’s teammate any longer. Bynum is, but he’s yet to appear in a game – all of which translates to the Sixers’ need for Richardson to resume his ways as one of the NBA’s top rebounding guards.

Richardson, absent from Wednesday’s preseason game, returned to practice Thursday while dealing with knee tendinitis. He said he’s good to play the next three preseason games, including Friday night in Brooklyn, and said he needs that time to work on aspects of his game – like rebounding. Go figure.

“(Sixers coach Doug Collins) has got us guards moving around a lot,” Richardson said. “So it’s not just spot-up shooting. It’s moving, cutting to the basket, getting myself rebounding again because Dwight (Howard in Orlando) was taking all the rebounds. I’ve just got to get myself used to the things I normally did but haven’t done in the last two years.”

Since 2004-05, Richardson has ranked in the top 10 in rebounding among guards five times in eight seasons. Two of those three instances in which he hasn’t occurred in the last two years, when he was rebounding alongside Howard while playing for the Magic.

Consider:

Year	Rank	RPG
2004-05	9th	5.9
2005-06	6th	5.8
2006-07	9th	5.1
2007-08	5th	5.4
2008-09	15th	4.4
2009-10	7th	5.1
2010-11	12th	4.1
2011-12	25th	3.6

“It is hard. I always was a rebounding guard, always in the top-five in rebounding for the guards,” Richardson said after practice at PCOM Thursday. “But when you have a guy like Dwight down there who’s getting 20 rebounds a game, it was kind of hard to get a rebound. But with this team, everybody has to do that. I’ve just got to get back to those habits.”

Until Bynum gets back, the Sixers need Richardson to return to form. He’ll get another chance at it Friday against the Nets.