Van Gundy is in the process of face-to-face meetings with all of the team’s returning players. He’ll be in California this week to talk to Brandon Jennings. Last week’s meeting with Drummond left him even more enthused about the chance to work with him.
“The possibilities are very exciting,” he said. “Not just because of his age and ability, but because when you get a chance to sit down and talk to him and his mother – this is a young man with a tremendous attitude who I truly believe wants to be great, wants to be coached, really wants to win and is willing to make sacrifices. You put that together with his talent and as a coach, as a president of basketball operations, you can’t help but get pretty excited.”
Among the foremost impressions Van Gundy took from his initial meeting with Drummond was the sense that he isn’t just open to critical assessments of his game but eager to get that sort of feedback so he can bolster his weaknesses.
“What I liked more than anything, when I sat and talked to him, the part where he really started to get more excited and engaged was when we talked about the things he needed to work on to get better,” Van Gundy said. “That’s when you know you’ve got somebody who wants to be great and is pretty special, because they want to talk about how can I get better. He doesn’t want to stay where he is now. That’s pretty exciting.”
As Van Gundy watches videotape of Drummond’s 2013-14 season, he notices the dominant rebounding games and the elite finishing ability around the rim. But what captivates him most are the parts of Drummond’s game not yet in evidence.
“What you see from when he came in, he’s gotten better, but what you see more is all the things he can still do to get better,” he said. “Really, the sky is the limit on Andre Drummond.”
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