Drummond has arrived.
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 2:13 pm
Now that my brain has reset after the Golden State game and after having rewatched both the Blazers and Warriors game I have collected my thoughts.
During both of these games I watched something amazing unfold with Andre but at the time I was to entrenched in the game itself to get past the foam and vitriol spewing from my mouth to really take notice and truly understand what I was seeing.
Andre was becoming a superstar.
We all heard that he was putting in tons of time working on his post moves and even watched some videos of him and we also read that he wanted to become a leader of the team. Well during both of these games not only did we see Andre barking at his teammates to bring the ball up the floor faster (on one particular play during the warriors game he ran up the floor yelling at jackson and waved his arm as if to say "get your ass up here! Stop dogging it!")but we also saw him giving his teammates encouragement on the bench during timeouts.
Vocal. Encouraging his teammates. Talking with the refs. Waving towards stan after he picked up his second foul not to pull him out. Telling the media he only cared about winning. Demanding the ball in the post. These are the things superstars do vocally that others do not.
Then I witnessed his post play. It is truly amazing to go back and see the switch go from slowly flipping to bam! It's on, give me the damn ball and let me go to work mode. Passing out of triple teams. Scoring on double teams. Unbelievable footwork the likes of which I haven't seen in years (combined with raw power)drives to the hole, angry dunks, twirling layups, almost automatic hook shots, pure unadulterated power moves utilizing his strength and size like we have been wanting him to for years. He was not meekishly getting the ball and putting up a soft off-balance shot, and acquiescing to smaller players. He was using his strength and size to move/throw/push players out of his way. (During one play in the warriors game he rammed speights so hard he flew 8 feet under the basket and wasnt called for a foul. I was shocked) He was spinning, twirling and leaning his way closer.
Andre was the unquestioned leader of the Pistons both those nights and became the player I, and everyone else here had hoped he would eventually become.
Andre has arrived.
During both of these games I watched something amazing unfold with Andre but at the time I was to entrenched in the game itself to get past the foam and vitriol spewing from my mouth to really take notice and truly understand what I was seeing.
Andre was becoming a superstar.
We all heard that he was putting in tons of time working on his post moves and even watched some videos of him and we also read that he wanted to become a leader of the team. Well during both of these games not only did we see Andre barking at his teammates to bring the ball up the floor faster (on one particular play during the warriors game he ran up the floor yelling at jackson and waved his arm as if to say "get your ass up here! Stop dogging it!")but we also saw him giving his teammates encouragement on the bench during timeouts.
Vocal. Encouraging his teammates. Talking with the refs. Waving towards stan after he picked up his second foul not to pull him out. Telling the media he only cared about winning. Demanding the ball in the post. These are the things superstars do vocally that others do not.
Then I witnessed his post play. It is truly amazing to go back and see the switch go from slowly flipping to bam! It's on, give me the damn ball and let me go to work mode. Passing out of triple teams. Scoring on double teams. Unbelievable footwork the likes of which I haven't seen in years (combined with raw power)drives to the hole, angry dunks, twirling layups, almost automatic hook shots, pure unadulterated power moves utilizing his strength and size like we have been wanting him to for years. He was not meekishly getting the ball and putting up a soft off-balance shot, and acquiescing to smaller players. He was using his strength and size to move/throw/push players out of his way. (During one play in the warriors game he rammed speights so hard he flew 8 feet under the basket and wasnt called for a foul. I was shocked) He was spinning, twirling and leaning his way closer.
Andre was the unquestioned leader of the Pistons both those nights and became the player I, and everyone else here had hoped he would eventually become.
Andre has arrived.
