Andre Drummond receives one All Defensive Team vote for Detroit Pistons

The NBA released the results for the NBA All Defensive Team and the players that just missed out or received any votes by the voters. Only one Detroit Pistons’ player received a vote.

After every year, analysts and writers cast their votes for Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, Six Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and many more! They also cast their votes for the All-NBA Teams and the NBA All Defensive Teams! Well to no surprise, Andre Drummond was the only Detroit Pistons player to receive a vote this season.

https://twitter.com/PistonsFR/status/1131264402085306369

Yes, you heard that right; one vote. This was a bit of a shock to some Pistons fans who thought he deserved more appreciation for his much improved defense this season. Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets finished with the same amount of votes as Andre Drummond.

Andre Drummond came into the league showing potential of becoming a defensive monster. He posted up 1.6 blocks per game in his first two seasons. And his third season really opened up eyes when he blocked 1.9 shots per game!

Many thought he could build upon his 1.9 blocks and be the first Pistons player since Ben Wallace in the 2005-06 season to block over 2 shots per game.

His production in the block department dropped off. He would average 1.4 blocks in his next three season in the NBA. And his overall defense seemed off in a lot of the games. It wouldn’t be until the second half of thew 2017-18 season where you can see Andre Drummond’s defense rise.

In the last 35 games of the 2017-18 season, Drummond would average 2.1 blocks per game and 1.4 steals. And his defense was noticeably better and impacted the team.

He finished the season averaging 1.5 steals per game and 1.6 blocks. He would continue his performance on the defensive end in the 2018-19 season.

His impact defensively was heavily felt when he was on the court versus off the court. The Pistons do not have the greatest guard/wing defenders in the NBA. Bruce Brown is arguably their second best defender on the team. Meaning Drummond is forced to play a bigger role on the defensive end than a player should be.

Drummond finished the 2018-19 season averaging a career high in blocks since his 2014-15 season with 1.7 per game. And he also finished with a career high in steals with 1.7 per game. Drummond was one of two NBA players this season to put up 1.5 steals per game and 1.5 blocks per game. The other player being Anthony Davis.

Drummond does a good job staying with his defender. Aaron Gordon gets the ball at the three-point line and thinks he can take Drummond to the basket. Drummond stuffs the ball out-of-bounds.

Here Andre Drummond does an excellent job of helping on the D.J. Augustin drive to the basket. Augustin is forced to pass to Jonathan Isaac; who is blocked not once but twice, giving Drummond his 5th and 6th block of the game.

There is no question Andre Drummond is one of the best players in the NBA at reading the passing lane. He averaged 1.7 steals per game and is by far the best center at doing so. He also averaged 2.9 deflections per game this season; which ranks him 14th among players who have played in 20 or more games this season.

Drummond reads the pick and pop play perfectly that Indiana tried to run. Drummond played the passing lane and was rewarded with an open dunk.

Memphis sets a screen that switches Andre Drummond on Chandler Parsons. Drummond cleanly strips Parsons and forces the ball the other way.

And lastly Drummond does a great job of deflecting the lob pass. Here he does a good job of battering away the lob pass in a crucial fourth quarter game against the Grizzlies.

Did you think Andre Drummond’s defense went unnoticed?