Andre Drummond: No changes needed, Pistons need to improve team chemistry
This past regular season for the Detroit Pistons has been described as a disappointment plenty of times, leading to a feeling that some major changes are coming. If Andre Drummond was in charge, he would do the opposite of that.
The Pistons center told reporters he feels the franchise should stay pat during its new logo unveiling Tuesday, according to the Detroit Free Press‘s Vince Ellis.
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Drummond explained that even though the team missed the playoffs with a 37-45 record this year, he feels the team’s main core deserves another chance:
"“I don’t think we need to do any changes,” Drummond told reporters. “We had a lot of bumps in the road last season with different things going on, and it took everybody out of sync.”"
The Pistons had suffered from injury issues right from the start, including losing starting point guard Reggie Jackson for their first 21 games due to knee tendinitis. Detroit had also struggled to gain any momentum offensively throughout the year, finishing 26th in offensive efficiency in the NBA, according to basketball-reference.com.
Drummond had a down year in 2016-17, averaging 13.6 points and 13.8 rebounds per game in 81 appearances. Both of those averages are lower than his all-star campaign the previous season. He also took about two shots less per game and had a career-low in Player Efficiency Rating with 20.9.
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The veteran’s comments are similar to what Pistons head coach and team president Stan Van Gundy told reporters last month during the team’s end of season press conference.
Van Gundy said at the time that he felt the Pistons needed to make some tweaks this offseason. He explained the roster was built with Jackson’s pick-and-roll abilities in mind, but with him missing 30 games total, that never had the group they had in mind.
Drummond also feels the team needs to work on improving its chemistry together for next season. He hopes to spend time with his fellow teammates throughout the off-season:
"“With this summer coming up, we have to do a better job staying connected — the more stuff we do together, the better our camaraderie will be,” Drummond said. “Right now is the most important time for our team, to rest, get ourselves together, come together collectively and come up with what we need to do together.”"
With Drummond appearing to take a bigger leadership role heading into this summer, it will be interesting to see how the Pistons’ offseason goes and if their chemistry does improve enough to get them back into the postseason.