Who is the better center: Vuc or Drummond?

[ChettheJet]

Can't believe this is still going on or the survey results. If all you Drummond fanatics and Vucevic haters are so right, why didn't ANY other team offer more money to Drummond to sign during the summer? Or should the rest of us just subscribe to the internet expert opinion that every GM of every team is an imbecile and doesn't know basketball talent when it's there right in front of them that even a kid in his bedroom closet can see it.

[Guru]

Vuc is a top 10 scoring C in the league and top 8 rebounder.

The idea that he is a net negative is inaccurate.

The idea that he couldn't benefit half the league is inaccurate.

[MGB8]

Vuc is a top 10 scoring C in the league and top 8 rebounder.

The idea that he is a net negative is inaccurate.

The idea that he couldn't benefit half the league is inaccurate.

Ok, AK. Top 10 scorer as in tied for 10th with Myles Turner at 17 ppg, but below that per minute, not even in the top 30 of C in TS (may be below top 50, I stopped counting).. a stat centers nor all have an edge in (but Vuc is a little below Russell friggin Westbrook in efficiency). So he is the Jabari Parker, Ron Mercer of centers… wow!

And, yes, he is tied for 8th/9th among C in RPG, but if the few Cs right below him and Capella played marginally more minutes, he would be behind them. But he is a pretty good rebounder. WOW.

[League Circles]

Can't believe this is still going on or the survey results. If all you Drummond fanatics and Vucevic haters are so right, why didn't ANY other team offer more money to Drummond to sign during the summer? Or should the rest of us just subscribe to the internet expert opinion that every GM of every team is an imbecile and doesn't know basketball talent when it's there right in front of them that even a kid in his bedroom closet can see it.

Well, the first way to answer this question would be to compare the list of players that were available to the number of players signed and the number of MLE (full, room, and taxpayer versions) that were available to be used. There are also probably a lot of teams that already have one or two centers roughly in the neighborhood as good as Drummond (better or worse) that are already under contract. So even if there were many GMs that might have thought Drummond could help them, the player market in this league is one of slots and situations, not anything approaching some kind of pure meritocracy where the best players get the most money.

Drummond can hang with virtually every center in the league on every night and outplay a huge number of them, minus a small handful of guys like Jokic and Embiid etc.

Nba coaches have chosen him as an all star twice. IIRC he has the greatest career rebound % in nba history. He's playing as well now as he was then. The most likely explanation for why he doesn't have a big contract anymore (he's a former max or near max player) is that he was traded from Detroit cause they couldn't out together a good team and wanted to try something new, and then was in a series of bad situations either due to youth movements (brief time in Cleveland), playing behind strong players like Embiid, Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis (Philly and LA), and a mess of mismatched talent in his brief time in Brooklyn. Then in Chicago where he's been out playing Vuc (which should be absolutely no surprise to anyone) since he got here, but AK needs to prop up Vuc cause of how much he stupidly paid for him in trade and salary.

Also, the fact that he's a traditional power big who is bad at free throws definitely makes GMs afraid he'll make them look bad or old fashioned, but that's in their heads.

Nba salaries are much more of a function of projections and narratives and sun costs and ticket sales than they are some kind of measurement of how good a player is. Bulls since the dynasty paying guys big money to not be close to their best player, sometimes not even good players:

Jalen Rose
Antonio Davis
Ben Wallace
Larry Hughes
Carlos Boozer
Dwyane Wade
Robin Lopez
Vucevic

Then there is a similar list of quality players that can compare to the guys above that were literally making the minimum, like Drummond. It's just how this league is. Once you can't be made part of a narrative as a young up and comer, a cornerstone piece, or a missing piece, you're almost automatically going to be underpaid.

[League Circles]

Vuc is a top 10 scoring C in the league and top 8 rebounder.

The idea that he is a net negative is inaccurate.

The idea that he couldn't benefit half the league is inaccurate.

He's 58th in the league in rebounding %, an obviously more objective stat to measure that ability, and of the guys ahead of him, only about 15 haven't been playing regularly all season. His rebounding is pedestrian AF.


There are 28 Cs with better scoring efficiency than him among guys with enough minutes to qualify. His scoring SUCKS. It's killing us just as much as his defense frankly. The opposing teams are giving him wide open shots from the top of the arc and he can't him them at anything close to a good rate. Just kills our offense.

All that said, I do think he's just having a bad shooting slump this season and will bounce back some towards the mean for the rest of the season and going forward. Just not enough to be good and certainly not enough to offset his embarrassingly bad defense.

Could he benefit half the league, ignoring his big contract that he's nowhere near justifying? Maybe. But so what. Being better than half of the backup centers in the league is an extremely low bar for a 20 million dollar player. He's definitely among the very worst starting Cs in the league this year, and worse tha many backups including Drummond.

[ChiTownHero1992]

I love that Drummond is so underrated...people act like he is a slouch, a career back-up when not so long ago he was a near-all-star and starting center. He is a near HOF rebounder and a great defender. This should be a close race people, Vuc is/was and always has been an above-average starting C, and Drummond was an above-average starting C and a VERY GOOD backup C.

Its hard to compare the two as they play vastly differently, modern take Vuc, overall I lean towards Drummond.

Can't believe this is still going on or the survey results. If all you Drummond fanatics and Vucevic haters are so right, why didn't ANY other team offer more money to Drummond to sign during the summer? Or should the rest of us just subscribe to the internet expert opinion that every GM of every team is an imbecile and doesn't know basketball talent when it's there right in front of them that even a kid in his bedroom closet can see it.

The modern NBA hates players like Drummond, in fact Gobert is still often treated like **** and called overpaid, overrated, etc when the reality is Drummond in the 90's or 00's would be considered a top 5-10 Center in the league with how he plays. Not many are going to pay big money for a defensive/rebounding Center when everyone talks about floor spacing/shooting as the only things that matter. I like both guys but its just a matter of different times and different styles.