Detroit Pistons: No need to fear, Bill Simmons, here’s why you vote for Andre Drummond

Bill Simmons fears Detroit Pistons fans if he leaves off Andre Drummond for All-NBA consideration. Here’s why Drummond should capture voter’s attention.

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons fears Detroit Pistons fans, he said on the Lowe Post podcast this week. The Bostonian writer is well-aware of Pistons Twitter’s Camby madness when there is an egregious Pistons take on social media.

His fear isn’t because the Pistons have dominated the Celtics. In fact, maybe there should be some animosity the other way around since the Pistons’ last playoff win came against the Celtics in 2008 before losing 10-straight playoff games, including two in that six-game series loss. But Simmons and Zach Lowe, who wrote for Simmons at Grantland and is now a senior writer at ESPN, were naming their top 3 centers to vote for All-NBA.

Simmons directly mentioned PistonPowered, which published this piece on why Pistons fans use a Marcus Camby gif on Twitter with what they feel is an egregiously bad take against their team or players. While Simmons didn’t reference the article, he knows. Still, he went with Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo as his third choice.

Andre Drummond deserves All-NBA consideration for the career year he’s having. Sure, it’s early, which means there’s plenty to shake out this season. Mind you, Drummond has dominated Boston over his career, which the Pistons play Friday, to the tune of 17 points and 15.1 rebounds per game. That’s good for second- and third-best in his career against a single team.

Remarkably, Drummond is doing better than that for this entire season, with a line of 17.8 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.7 steals per game. Those would set career-highs in points, rebounds, blocks and tie in steals.

His scoring is up due to improved ball-handling, which allows him to score from the perimeter. Attention to him in the paint and his ability to find open shooters with crisp passes through traffic has assisted in the Pistons ranking fourth in 3-point percentage at 37.7%. While he’s not currently on pace to hit a career-high in assists, they’ve been more impressive since the dribble-handoff days of Stan Van Gundy’s coaching.

He’s also an ironman and is seemingly never hurt, with the exception of Mexico City providing AvocaDre when he’s missed two games due to an allergic reaction to avocados. Even then, he played through it that night.

Since he entered the league in 2013, Drummond is eighth in games played with 568. If it weren’t for AvocaDre, he’d be tied for sixth since sitting out twice has allowed Jae Crowder (570) and Thaddeus Young (569) to pass him. Drummond’s played in 78 or more games since his second season and first as a full-time starter.

Before the season, Drummond and several Pistons had a strong case for being in the running for a few awards. Winning cures all and it’ll be an uphill battle to get to the playoffs, but that shouldn’t be a red mark against Pistons in a league where 56.7% of teams have a losing record, including three holding playoff spots.

Kemba Walker made All-NBA last season with the Charlotte Hornets finishing two games out of the playoffs.  All Walker did that season above his normal average was score 3 more points per game on three more shots per game. He also grabbed one rebound more per contest.

Detroit’s season has been marked by injuries. What was supposed to be a season of optimism and early-season dominance with an improved bench – second-best in scoring in the league – has instead been a source of conflict on whether to buy or sell. Blake Griffin isn’t healthy and Reggie Jackson has been out after trying to give it a go the first two games of the season.

But there has been one constant.

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Andre Drummond.

He has shown up for his teammates, even when he’s not in the game, and it’s been noticeable. He’s the first one off the bench to provide a source of encouragement, cheer on their performance or congratulate them coming to the bench.

On the court his motor is always running, proving to be a two-way player as a rim protector and scorer. He’s the league’s best rebounder, and has been the past four seasons in total rebounds. He’s squashed the narrative of being a bad free throw shooter and is hitting a career high of 62.8%, which is quite impressive being three seasons removed from 38.6%.

For a guy that’s 279 pounds, he glides up and down the court. His strength has proven to be tough on opponents, notably dominating Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic one-on-one.

The NBA has used the term “positionless” a lot but the center position is proving hard to pick apart with the rise of Adebayo and talent all over the league at center. It’s a tough choice but Drummond shouldn’t be an afterthought.

We’ll let the season play out and we’re happy to re-visit this again.