Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond Could Be The Most Improved Player This Year

By chriscruz on October 24, 2014

Andre Drummond could be the best center in the league soon.

There is not a player in the league with more upside than he has in my opinion. He is a true 7-footer, who hustles on the court like nobody except for maybe Joakim Noah. His offense, currently at 11.1 points per game during his career, is basically non-existent with the exception of dunks, layups and the cleanup baskets that come off of his career 10.8 rebounds per game.

We have seen the emergence of a new type of player in the NBA with the “small” big men who post up around the three-point line, trying to create space for guards like Dwyane Wade or LeBron James to take the ball to the basket. But Drummond provides something else because he is a true center, and where there are only a few of them left in the league, Drummond remains a rare breed for his level of intensity at that position. In one game last year, he collected a monster record of 26 rebounds — a number that is more than half of what most teams total in a game.

With Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy working with him and also taking over basketball operations, Drummond can only develop even more this year.

As I have written about before, Van Gundy worked much with Dwight Howard in perfecting post moves that fit his athleticism and size during his more dominant years with Orlando, where the offense revolved around him and played with fierce continuity. Orlando spaced the floor with the rest of their players and lived and died by the three-point shot opportunities that opened up due to Howard’s around-the-basket dominance. Van Gundy can only take the same approach with a young Drummond and churn out similar, if not better, results.

He is only 21 years old, entering the league after only one year at Georgetown, and continued to show increasing improvement during the latter part of last season. During the last eight games of the season he averaged 18 points and 17 rebounds per game; it’s unfathomable that a 20-year-old puts up those kind of numbers. Against the Washington Wizards during the preseason, he scored 21 points on 9-for-9 shooting in 29 minutes. This is an example of the potential he has but, of course, everybody has flaws.

Drummond went 3-for-10 from the free-throw line in that game. Much like Howard, Drummond has struggled shooting free-throws and will struggle if he does not work on that knowing players will use the same “hack-a-Shaq,” or “hack-a-Dwight” approach on him.

It would be in his best interest to not only work on his free-throws, but also his post moves, hopefully sans the modern face-up post moves a la Blake Griffin. It would be nice to see someone perfect the back to the basket game again like centers of old used to do. But again, he is only 21 years old and he has an entire career ahead of him, and he seems to have real durability.

The sky is the limit for the young player, but he has to be committed to wanting it. Drummond could win the Most Improved Player Award simply by his numbers: he will get over the 18 points per game mark and eclipse 13 or 14 rebounds per game. Can you think of any other player who has had those numbers? Only Kevin Love, Zach Randolph, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard have hit the 18 points and 12 rebounds mark in the past 10 years, and they are All-Stars.

Maybe Drummond is headed in that same direction.