If you want to start a debate with a fan of the Detroit Pistons, just bring up Andre Drummond and choose a side.
Drummond is one of the most polarizing players in Pistons’ history, as he racked up rebounds and some individual accolades but the teams he was on didn’t enjoy much success. Drummond played 7+ seasons for the Pistons, making two All-Star teams and leading the league in rebounding four times.
He played 591 games for Detroit, averaging 14.4 points, 13.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, setting several all-time Pistons’ records in the process.
But the team went just 257-334 in the Andre Drummond era, had just one winning season, and didn’t win a single playoff game, so it’s hard to call his time with the Pistons anything other than a disaster from a team perspective.
Drummond is a one-dimensional center with little offensive game and mediocre defense, so part of the team’s lack of success falls on his failure to evolve with a rapidly-changing center position in the NBA.
But more of the failure falls on the team, who decided to build around a rebounder (great idea!), failed to recognize the changing nature of the NBA and never put very good, or complementary teams around Andre Drummond, who played with many players that were not starting caliber.
Here are the seven worst, ranked from best to worst. For the purposes of this, I only chose players who started at least 20 games in the season.
Ranking the 7 worst Pistons starters of the Andre Drummond era
#7: Wayne Ellington, 2028-19
Ellington actually had a couple of good seasons with the Detroit Pistons, and had he just been a sharpshooter coming off the bench, would have been fine. But he started all but two games he played for Detroit this season and the 31-year-old wasn’t a starting caliber two-guard. He mostly just launched a lot of 3-point shots, hitting 37 percent of them, so again, Ellington wasn’t terrible. Detroit did go to the playoffs that season after finishing 41-41, a record that is a pretty good indication of some of the mediocrity in the starting lineup.