The Detroit Pistons shouldn’t give up on Andre Drummond.
The Detroit Pistons will look at every option this off-season. One of those options includes trading Andre Drummond. The Pistons should avoid doing so.
"“With the 9th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons select Andre Drummond from the University of Connecticut.”"
Those were the words of former NBA Commissioner David Stern.
Andre Drummond and the Detroit Pistons just finished their 7th season together. The Pistons selected Drummond with the 9th overall pick in the NBA Draft in 2012.
The Pistons were happy and shocked that Drummond fell all the way down to them. His major fault and knockdown going into the NBA? His motor.
Drummond was paired up with former teammate and now 76ers rotational man Greg Monroe. In his rookie season, Drummond came off the bench for his first 50 games of the season before going down with a back injury. This forced him to miss 22 games of the season until returning and starting in the last 10 games.
He finished the season averaging 7.9 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, and 1.6 blocks per game on 60 percent shooting in 20.7 minutes a night. He was rewarded an All-Rookie Second Team position for his solid season. Pistons fans saw the potential in the 19-year-old big man.
He was looking like he could become a dominant shot-blocker that can contribute on the offensive end with high-efficiency. He was dunking just about every time he could and teams struggled to stop his athleticism.
Fast forward to the beginning of his 7th season in the NBA. Andre Drummond is a 2x NBA All Star and made an All NBA 3rd team in the 2015-16 season. He had led the league in rebounding total rebounds 3 different times. And overall top 2 total rebounder in 5 of the 6 seasons he had played in.
But the knock on him had always been that he has only had one playoff appearance in his career. His only appearance came in the 2015-16 season when he was paired up with Reggie Jackson and Tobias Harris. Harris was acquired before the trade deadline in exchange for Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings.
Although showing the defensive potential again in his 6th season in the NBA, Drummond had never became the defensive player that many fans saw in his first two seasons. And his efficiency dropped as years went on.
Going into his 7th season , instead of being paired with Tobias Harris, he’d be paired up with superstar forward Blake Griffin. Many questioned the fit of Drummond and Griffin together; saying that Drummond and Griffin cannot co-exist together and the power forward and center position leading the team would end in a disaster.
This talk was quickly shut down. After the first 20 games of the season, the Pistons were sitting with a record of 13 wins and 7 losses. They had just come off an impressive win against the Golden State Warriors. And overall had just won 5 straight.
Andre Drummond was playing dominant and almost seemed unstoppable; averaging 18.6 points per game, 16.4 rebounds per game, 1.9 blocks per game, and 1.4 steals per game on 52..5 percent shooting. He collected in 6 20-point, 20-rebound games in the first 20 games.
And most importantly, he and Blake Griffin had been winning games together. That had been the biggest talk throughout the summer. Things were looking bright for the Pistons. Then they hit a rough patch in their schedule where they couldn’t win any games.
After sitting with a record of 13 and 7, they would only win 8 games in their next 27 games. Andre Drummond received a lot of the heat for the Pistons losses. He was averaging only 14.4 points a night and 13.6 rebounds on 47 percent shooting while playing below average defense.
The criticism towards the Drummond and Griffin duo came back. Fans continued to criticize them by saying they couldn’t co-exist.
In those 24 games during the rough patch in their schedule, the Drummond and Griffin was a -1.3 net rating per 100 possessions.
Andre Drummond though, had been playing with a finger injury that continued to hurt both him and the Pistons.
Then Drummond went down with a concussion injury. He was forced to miss three games. This allowed him to also recover from the finger injury he’d been dealing with. He would come back 3 games later looking like a totally different player.
After going down 7 games under .500 and were almost looking at a top 8 lottery pick, the Pistons would go on a run in their last 35 games of the season to sneak their way into the 8th and final spot in the playoffs with a record of 41 and 41.
They were led by dominant performance of Andre Drummond. Similar to the beginning of the season, teams struggled to stop him. With a new style of offense that Casey had started playing, this helped Drummond become more active in the Pistons offense.
Drummond would finish the last 35 games averaging 18.6 points a night, 16.5 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, and 1.9 steals while shooting 58.2 percent from the field! His offense looked sharper than ever and his defense had been the best of his career.
The Pistons had a net rating of 10.6 per 100 possessions when Drummond was on the court and -11.4 when he was off the court in the 35 game stretch. This had easily been one of the best on/off net ratings in the entire league during the stretch.
With all the criticism Blake and Drummond received for being the dynamic duo to lead the Pistons, their last 35 games together helped the Pistons make the NBA Playoffs. The Pistons were a net rating of 9.8 per 100 possessions; an offensive rating of 118.5 and defensive rating of 108.7.
These two players can co-exist. Yeah they made the 8th seed. But Drummond found a good rhythm offense to work with in the second half of the season. And clearly the faults of the team were far beyond anything Drummond and Griffin did.