Detroit Pistons: Andre Drummond has high praise for Jalen Duren

Andre Drummond’s career has taken quite a turn since he was traded away from the Detroit Pistons.

He was once an All-Star and one of the centerpieces of a franchise, a guy on a max deal who led the league in rebounding four times.

Since then his role and numbers have been reduced every season, and he is now more of a role player getting sporadic minutes off the Bulls’ bench. He is still a very effective rebounder when he’s in there, but he plays sparingly and his days of being in a starting lineup are long over.

The league passed Drummond by in some ways, but he did have some great seasons for the Detroit Pistons, who clearly miscalculated when they decided to build around a big man with a limited offensive game.

Drummond was one of many great rebounders the Pistons have had over the years, and they hope the next one is here in rookie Jalen Duren.

Detroit Pistons: Andre Drummond and Jalen Duren

Duren is already drawing comparisons to Drummond because of his athleticism and tenacity on the boards. Duren has been one of the league’s top rebounders since joining the starting five, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise disappointing season.

While there are some similarities, Duren is younger than Drummond was when he joined the league and has already shown signs of being a better offensive player. Duren is averaging 1.7 assists per game as a starter and has already shown better touch around the rim than Drummond ever had.

Duren’s ceiling is higher but if he ends up just being a guy who leads the league in rebounds, the Detroit Pistons will take it.

Andre Drummond has taken notice of the Pistons’ rookie and had some high praise for him in a recent profile by Mike Curtis of the Detroit News. It’s an interesting article where Drummond talked about everything from re-joining Detroit some day (he’s up for it) to what he thinks of the Pistons’ most recent rebounding machine:

"“I think from what I’ve seen, I think he’s a very good basketball player…I think he’s very young; he’s raw. I think the staff is doing a very good job of getting him acclimated to the league. I think he’s going to be really good, man. I think his aggression, his ability to not stop going after the rebound is going to be very key for him. I’m rooting for him. I hope he does really well. I see he’s wearing the No. 0 too, so it’s definitely hitting home for me.”"

The youth may be the key here, as Duren is the league’s youngest player and has already started more games than Drummond did in his rookie season. His rebounding is already impressive and if Duren can some offense to his game, he could exceed what Drummond did for the Pistons in his 7+ seasons with the team and be closer to a Bam Adebayo in terms of overall impact.

I’m still rooting for Drummond, who was unfairly maligned at the end of his time with Detroit, but the Pistons have a new big man who looks like he could be even better.