3 takeaways from Detroit Pistons 116-110 win over the Charlotte Hornets

1. Drummond’s passing is the real thing

Stan Van Gundy realized in 2017, five years later than the rest of the NBA, that you can’t be an efficient post-up player, throwing hook shots over seven-footers. So, that summer, taking the advice of his brother and his staff, he decided to diversify the offense.

Drummond’s previous responsibilities included a high dose of high pick&roll and posting up after the roll. That resulted in clogged up lanes and hook shots with a chance of going in around the low 40s. At the start of the 2017-2018 season, Drummond was taught to pop to the high post after rolls and create opportunities for others.

The Pistons center embraced that change and almost eliminated the tough post-ups, operating from the elbow for the first time in his life. Not only did he stop taking a lot of inefficient shots, but he started creating a lot of efficient shots for his teammates and he was pretty good at it considering his inexperience.

Then, Griffin came and Van Gundy just scratched all of it off the playbook. Then, Dwane Casey came and said “hmm, let’s try that post up thing again” along with “Andre, you can shoot threes now”. Now that his coach has a better understanding of his game, we’ve seen a whole different Andre Drummond.

In this preseason, more than ever, Drummond has displayed an ability to create easy shots for his teammates. We’ve seen him remember his 2017 play, operating from the elbow once again. From that area, he can run dribble hand-offs (DHOs) for his teammates.

And because he’s such a threat when he rolls to the rim, he opens a ton of space for his teammate to either shoot or drive. And because he sets great screens (and because of the 3 seconds rule), his defender has to be up there to help, opening up the lane for back door cuts like these.

Drummond can turn some of his post-ups, especially against players his size, into high post touches where he can find open people and run DHOs. His efficiency will rise significantly if he does this. Out of DHOs the Pistons can find Drummond on the roll where’s his at his best and they can get to their drive and kick game.

Last year, the big man had over 1052 attempts making 53.3 percent. All but a few of those shots came in the paint but only 71 percent of those came in the restricted area. For comparison, nearly 88 percent of Rudy Gobert‘s shots cam in the restricted area.

This is really important because Drummond shoots just under 38 percent on non-RA in-the paint shots. And you can imagine his efficiency even further away from the basket. Of course, Drummond is not shooting under 40 percent on open paint shots. Most of the time, he’s tightly guarded when he takes those shots. Which means that other people must be open.

He’s shooting just under 50 percent on layups and tips shots overall, which is absurd. Up until now, Drummond has been a black hole on the block, rarely kicking it out when he gets it near the rim. But that’s not the Drummond we’ve seen so far in the preseason.

He could’ve had a decent shot over Malik Monk in the play below. However, kicking it out to the corner starts a chain reaction of the defense breaking down that leads to the easiest shot imaginable.

And he could’ve finished this play against two smaller defenders contesting him at the rim. But the wide-open corner three is just a better shot. Galloway would only have to make 40% of those uncontested shots to match a 60% efficiency from Drummond over two defenders near the rim, both hypothetical numbers.

Drummond can significantly raise team efficiency if he keeps this up. He was first in the league last year in paint touches, but he only scored 0.945 points per touch. With the attention he gets near the rim, he can generate a ton of open threes if he can kick it out consistently.

As of now, he seems like he can handle it. He’s shown great passing skills but, most importantly, he seems more than willing to try. He’s been dishing it all preseason, with great results. And he can make passes on the move, which is not that common for a center.

Making passes off the dribble for Drummond is like pull-up threes for Griffin. It can change the makeup of the team and take their game to the next level. Drummond is a big target and he draws multiple defenders when he rolls to the rim. Help defense usually comes from the corner.

Passing on the move before the defense can recover will do a lot for the Pistons on offense. Drummond could be Detroit’s main source of generating corner threes in the half-court and that is a huge deal.