WASHINGTON – I arrived the Verizon Center yesterday afternoon, a few minutes before Andre Drummond’s workout with the Wizards was scheduled to open to the media. I signed in and made my way to the media room, where I found just two reporters in an otherwise deserted room. Turns out, Drummond’s workout had been moved up to the morning, and I had missed it. I was pretty bummed. I had really hoped to get a better feel for Drummond’s game, but I still don’t have a clue.
I suppose, seeing yesterday workout or not, I’m like everyone else.
Before the lottery, I told Patrick about a post I had planned in case the Pistons landed the No. 2 or No. 3 pick. My premise: Not only should the Pistons not draft Drummond, they shouldn’t even work him out or interview him. There’s nothing he could say or do that would erase the fact that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Thomas Robinson had drastically better college seasons than Drummond.
In nonsense of pre-draft evaluations, the ability to play basketball – what should be the most important factor – often gets lost. I wouldn’t give Drummond a chance to fool me.
But at No. 9? I’d gleefully ride the Drummond rollercoaster.
Drummond could be Dwight Howard, Michael Olowokandi or anything between. So much comes down to his future work ethic and focus, two areas that nobody can completely evaluate and few can even project.
Thankfully, despite all Drummond’s unknowns – even the media who saw a portion of the workout saw nothing more than Drummond missing most of his free throws – the Pistons appear willing to gamble on him if he falls. Chad Ford of ESPN:
"Of the five players just mentioned, Drummond is, by far, the biggest wild card. While it seems unlikely that the Bobcats draft him at No. 2 (they already took a flier on Bismack Biyombo last year) he is in the mix with the Wizards at No. 3, the Cavs at No. 4, the Kings at No. 5 and the Blazers at No. 6.However, in speaking with sources in each of those teams, they all sound skittish about drafting Drummond so high."The reward is there, but so is the risk," one GM told ESPN. "In this case, he’s the riskiest of the five by far and you have to be pretty confident as a GM that your owner is going to allow you to take that risk. Whoever drafts him is going to have to be patient and patience is a very rare commodity in our league." I think there are a number of scenarios where Drummond could slide out of the top six, but from what I can gather, he won’t get past the Detroit Pistons at No. 9."
Of the players who might be available at No. 9, Drummond is my ideal choice. I don’t think that will be relevant, because his physical skills are just too great to fall so far.
But maybe, just maybe, everything will work out and Drummond will be there – if not for me yesterday, for the Pistons in nine days.