Detroit Pistons replay center: How Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond feed off each other

Andre Drummond’s gravity

Drummond is elite at shifting the defense with his screens and rolls to the rim. In this next play, a Spain pick & roll, he gets the switch with a beautiful screen on Smith’s defender, dragging two Bulls with him as he rolls to the basket. That leaves his front court partner open for a while and a significantly smaller defender trying to bother his shot.

The fact that he’s such a threat vertically is what creates that space. They have to keep him in check until his defender recovers if they don’t want this to happen.

His not only a threat for a lob but a threat to rebound as well. In the next play, watch Jusuf Nurkic‘s unwillingness to leave Drummond unchecked. He stays on his man even as Griffin makes a move to the basket, in fear of giving up an offensive rebound.

Drummond is so fast and agile rolling to the rim and he can catch every pass coming his way with incredible instincts and hands. He can also crush the glass after a teammate’s drive. All those factors are threats for the defense to deal and help defense is in most cases necessary.

Griffin benefits especially from that roll gravity as the opposing team wants to send as big of a body to tag Drummond as possible. That’s how Tobias Harris used to get almost 6 3-pointers per game, more than he ever got in LA or Philly, and that’s how Griffin can find easier shots for himself as well.

Defenders naturally gravitate towards Drummond as he rolls to the rim and they stunt at Griffin on close-outs, afraid of the drive. Capitalizing on those catch-and-shoot opportunities, worth 1.13 points per shot, would make the Pistons life easier on offense.

I think we’ve mainly covered the concepts that go into how the two Pistons big men help each other get easy shots, so to summarize let’s look at how those concepts are utilized when they are put in pick-and-roll situations.