Robin Lopez vs. Andre Drummond?

[Viatical]

I am in a deep, deep 10-cat league: FG%, FT%, 3PTM, PTS, OREB, DREB, AST, ST, BLK, TO.

The nature of the league makes it so that scrounging for quality waiver wire adds can be challenging. However, I have the option of adding either Andre Drummond or Robin Lopez.

I like that Robin Lopez has been delivering unexpectedly solid value in points, rebounds, and blocks this season as well as shooting a very sexy 79% from the line this season. He may end up getting no more than 23-25 MPG from now until the rest of the season.

On the other hand, Drummond is one of the most productive players in the league in relation to his minutes, and I suspect the Pistons are a week or two away from going full youth movement and giving Drummond true starter's minutes. This is appealing for the double doubles, but it's also a potential liability when it comes to his free throw shooting. Drummond currently shoots a pathetic 39% from the free throw line this season, and my concern is that with a new minutes load, his usage will go up, his free throw attempts will go up, and I lose out on any opportunity to compete in the FT% category from that point on.

Without going into too much detail about the rest of my roster, I have been careful to choose good free throw shooters from front to bottom, and so a 39% FT%, 4-5 FTA guy would be a really big deal.

Does Drummond's upside and potential for more minutes down the road make him a better option than Lopez?

[Apathy]

How is it deep if Robin Lopez is available?

t60 on the year. 28th per the last month. He's the easy choice.

Paste your roster.

[Viatical]

How is it deep if Robin Lopez is available?

t60 on the year. 28th per the last month. He's the easy choice.

Paste your roster.

Thank you for the reply, as I was hoping to pick your brain in particular. Somebody in the league (quite foolishly) has dumped both players for highly speculative adds, and so I finally feel like I have a wealth of waiver wire options. No more renting Biyombo or Lavoy Allen as big men.

If you don't mind, I'll decline to post my full roster in order to maintain my anonymity, but it suffices to say that I do NEED an offensive rebounding / shotblocking big on my roster, and these are the two best choices available.

One concern I've had about Robin Lopez is that Aminu and Jason Smith (of all people!) are eating a bit into his minutes owing to Monty Williams' erratic roations, whereas the only player who can challenge Drummond for minutes in the Pistons' frontcourt down the road is Jason Maxiell, who has a strong chance of being traded within a month.

You've been there and done that, though. Do you think it's at all useful to try to second-guess coaching rotations like this, or should I just add the best available at the moment (which I guess would be Lopez)?

[Apathy]

Yeah, I mostly stay away from guessing about coaching rotations. Coaches, although they may be slow to make changes, do know what's up: they (most, anyway) have access to more intricate and specific stats than we do. And then there are messy things like leadership coming into play.

Those concerns have followed Lopez all year but it hasn't mattered; he's only improved. Not someone I'm super confident in but production talks, so you just gotta roll with it and hope he keeps it up.

Drummond is reminiscent of Favors' situation the past couple of years. Not that he has elite talent blocking him, but that everyone was willing to gamble on him just because of upside. Yeah, Drummond's a better bet to reach 30mpg sooner than Favors did, but I bring up Favors just as an example that it's far from a guarantee.

Depending on the end of your roster I'd make room for both.