Andre Drummond replaces Kristaps Porzingis in Skills Contest
By Ash Vanclay
Andre Drummond has gone from being snubbed from the All-Star game completely, to now having a very busy weekend entirely.
After replacing John Wall in the All-Star game, Andre Drummond has continued his All-Star weekend activities and will now be competing in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge.
Andre Drummond will be replacing last year’s winner – New York Knicks star, Kristaps Porzingis in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge who is out with an ACL injury.
Andre Drummond will be the first Detroit Piston to ever participate in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge.
Andre Drummond will be competing against former Piston Spencer Dinwiddie (Brooklyn Nets), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers), Al Horford (Boston Celtics), Lauri Markkanen (Chicago Bulls), Buddy Hield (Sacramento Kings), Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets), and Lou Williams (Los Angeles Clippers).
The current format of the skills challenge has 2 players competing simultaneously against each other, with the winner progressing to the next round. The format involves dribbling through a series of obstacles before making a pass into a target, participants must then grab a new ball and make either a layup or dunk, and then participants must grab their own rebounds from the previous shot and head to a pre-selected spot and make a three-point shot to end the course.
I will be looking forward to seeing how Andre Drummond competes. He is slowly becoming a good passer, showing good passing instincts for a big man (averaging 3.8 assists per game this season). He has also shown some interesting abilities to handle the basketball, and has even shown he has some ability to hit from three.
The last time Drummond appeared in All-Star festivities, he got bounced in the first round of the Slam Dunk Contest.