Andre Drummond makes SI’s top 100 players list
By Duncan Smith
Andre Drummond rounded out the Detroit Pistons’ participation in SI’s top 100 list. Following a disappointing season, a bounce-back is needed.
Once again it’s player ranking season in the NBA. SI led the way, starting off with the unforgiving challenge of ranking the top 100 players in the NBA. On Monday, they released numbers 51 through 100, and a number of Detroit Pistons were represented in that most middling of rankings.
Tobias Harris checked in at 81, which is a dubious ranking for a player who shined in the midst of dysfunction and chaos a year ago. Reggie Jackson‘s rating of 77 drips of optimism based on the Pistons’ skillful handling of his rehabilitation from knee tendinitis, and Avery Bradley checked in at 54.
Andre Drummond rounds out both the Pistons’ participation in the top 100 list, and the 51-100 portion as well, checking it at 51.
Ben Golliver weighs in on the mercurial big man:
"Theoretically, the 24-year-old Drummond’s performance in 2016-17 should represent his basement. Reggie Jackson’s injury compromised their proven pick-and-roll partnership and forced Drummond into too many lower-efficiency post-up opportunities. Defensively, Drummond struggled with awareness, decision-making and rim-protection on an individual level, and yet the Pistons’ frontcourt personnel didn’t offer much in the way of help either."
It’s a mistake to think that a flailing Piston pick and roll caused the team to run more post ups. 27.5 percent of Andre Drummond’s possessions were post ups in both 2015-16 (a playoff season in which they won 44 games) and 2016-17 (a disappointing season in which they won 37 games) and there was virtually no improvement in either.
It’s not inaccurate to suggest that Reggie Jackson and Drummond’s pick and roll missed a step, though. Jackson’s lost athleticism was costly, but much of these inefficiencies and problems are on Drummond himself.
Next: Avery Bradley makes SI's top 100 players list
His surgery to repair a deviated septum should help, and the miserable experience of being a scapegoat for an underachieving team should be a cautionary tale for the 24-year-old big man going forward.