The Andre Drummond Thread (2014-2015)

whitehops · Post #1 » by **whitehops** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:29 pm

This thread is for probably my second favourite player in the league and the one I am most excited about going forward (only because davis is well on his way to superstardom). For those who don't know him too well or are skeptical still of his talents i'll just post a few things:

Drummond is probably the most physically imposing center we've seen since Dwight. here are there combine numbers (before Dwight bulked up, before andre slimmed down a little).

combine numbers (Dwight/Andre):
Height - 6'10.25"/6'11.75"
Weight - 240/279
Wingspan - 7'4.5"/7'6.25"
Standing Reach - 9'3.5"/9'1.5"
Standing Vertical - 30.5"/31.5"
Max Vertical - 35.5"/33.5"
Bench Press - 7/10
Agility Drill - 11.21/10.83 (john wall's was 10.84)
3/4 Court Sprint - 3.14/3.39

he now has stan van gundy as his coach, who coincidentally took over the coaching job in Orlando the first year Dwight howard went on to be on the nba's all-defense team. if SVG can have a similar impact then Drummond absolutely has the potential to be a perennial DPOY candidate.

here are some of his offensive numbers: he shot 62% on a little over 9.5 FGA/G, averaged only 1.4 turnovers a game and averaged a whopping 5.4 offensive board a game. he had 9 games last year where he scored 20+ with little in the way of go-to moves. once he improves his one-on-one arsenal he will be next to unstoppable.

here are some videos of him:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGvryuQDtWA[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtIuon2W05s[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7UNH1mGDo[/youtube]

this man is going to be good. I'm s excited to see what SVG does with him.

DK-All Day · Post #2 » by **DK-All Day** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:53 pm

I'm excited to see him this season under a functional coach for the 1st time in his career. Outside of Davis and Embiid, I don't know a more promising NBA big in the league right now.

ronnymac2 · Post #3 » by **ronnymac2** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:00 pm

I didn't like him when he was at UCONN, and I thought there was a very good chance he'd be a bust. He shut my dumb ass up. I've become a fan.

Drummond's offensive rebounding is all-time good. So much energy. And when he bangs for position with the other team's biggest player, he can absorb the contact, keep his balance, and still reach high to grab the board. Very impressive.

This guy is of the Tyson Chandler/DeAndre Jordan ilk right now with the low turnovers, rebounding, and high percentage finishes. That can be extremely valuable in the right system. SVG really is a great coach for him, but I'm not sure if the personnel around him fits. Defensively, he needs to improve, but that'll come. SVG will help there, too.

The big question is...when he hits his prime, does he look like a better version of his current self (which would be absolutely fine), or does he expand his game? Better yet — should he expand his game?

HornetJail · Post #4 » by **HornetJail** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:00 pm

That dude is going to be an absolute monster. Between him, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, and Demarcus Cousins, they are probably going to be the best four big men in the league for a LONG time.

Colbinii · Post #5 » by **Colbinii** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:42 pm

BizGilwalker wrote:That dude is going to be an absolute monster. Between him, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, and Demarcus Cousins, they are probably going to be the best four big men in the league for a LONG time.

I didn't realize Kevin Love was going to retire.

ronnymac2 · Post #6 » by **ronnymac2** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:52 pm

I mean just check out this list with arbitrary criteria:

http://bkref.com/tiny/JlUQ6

At least 41 games played, 30 minutes per game, offensive rebound rate above 15%. This shows you're a truly dominant offensive rebounder who plays a large role for a team (not just platooning you in) for more than half a season.

That's impressive company. And Drummond did this on by far the best offensive rebounding team in the league.

whitehops · Post #7 » by **whitehops** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:59 pm

ronnymac2 wrote:The big question is...when he hits his prime, does he look like a better version of his current self (which would be absolutely fine), or does he expand his game? Better yet — should he expand his game?

I wouldn't hold my breath to wait for him to develop a consistent midrange shot, although if he improves his footwork/post moves and maybe improve his post passing (which he has shown flashes of) then he might not have to expand his game much.

I think once he becomes more of an iso threat down low it'll be essential for him to improve his passing, otherwise he'll end up turning it over every time he gets double-teamed.

Laimbeer · Post #8 » by **Laimbeer** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:02 pm

Dwight Howard type potential, maybe even more.

76ciology · Post #9 » by **76ciology** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:04 pm

All I can say is SVG is best known to bring out the best of his star player. He's a guy who put D12 into superstar status and made the thought of trading D12 for LBJ not crazy.

whitehops · Post #10 » by **whitehops** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 3:18 am

first impressions about his improvements this year?

I didn't get to watch the game today but did catch their first preseason game. I must say that his awareness is still pretty low, I would focus only on him for stretches of the game against the bulls and he would often 'ball-watch'. kind of like what harden did in that infamous video about his defense. Drummond ball-watched on offense too, there was one possession where he literally did not move from his spot, he stood at the elbow for at least ten seconds.

obviously he's a beast, he threw down an alleyoop from augustin that reminded me why I loved watching him play last year.

i'm excited to see if SVG can cut out Drummond's bad habits, and hopefully Drummond will cut them out himself as he gets more comfortable with SVG's system. it looks like he's still thinking when he's out there, hopefully it will become second nature with more experience.

Winsome Gerbil · Post #11 » by **Winsome Gerbil** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 7:39 am

I disliked what SVG did in Orlando squandering away their interior advantage with smallball tweener forwards, but I do think his hiring was the perfect one to make to try to make Drummond realize his potential as Dwight 2.0. There has always been some chance he would end up pulling up short of that, be a DeAndre Jordan character instead. You could see at FIBA the gulf in feel for the game between Dre and Davis/Cousins. But he's come so far already and his physical characteristics alone were enough that every team after New Orleans who passed on him should be hanging their heads in shame. Now he's got the perfect coach to find a way to feature a physical specimen who probably will always be a bit mechanical. If you call Davis a PF, which I do, then after Cousins Dre is clearly the next young big with franchise potential. If Embiid pans out as well, we could actually begin to have some fun battles inside again.

whitehops · Post #12 » by **whitehops** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:43 pm

Drummond showing a lot of improvement with his post game, he went 9/9 from the field yesterday and a healthy amount of those shots were hook shots and not just dunks:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXtYdHWyBU[/youtube]

YogurtProducer · Post #13 » by **YogurtProducer** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:06 pm

whitehops wrote:Drummond showing a lot of improvement with his post game, he went 9/9 from the field yesterday and a healthy amount of those shots were hook shots and not just dunks:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXtYdHWyBU[/youtube]

Couple flukey ass shots there hahahah

Cruel_Ruin · Post #14 » by **Cruel_Ruin** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:26 pm

whitehops wrote:Drummond showing a lot of improvement with his post game, he went 9/9 from the field yesterday and a healthy amount of those shots were hook shots and not just dunks:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXtYdHWyBU[/youtube]

Wow, that is impressive stuff. Looking forward to seeing how he develops.

whitehops · Post #15 » by **whitehops** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:23 pm

his season opener was pretty underwhelming, mainly because he was in foul trouble for most of the game.

he did, however, show good improvement in his post game:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8K93z16j5k[/youtube]

that dunk over mozgov was very shaq-like

Notanoob · Post #16 » by **Notanoob** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:42 pm

Drummond looks like he's made real progress in his post game. I was impressed. I hope that they feed him more, he looked disengaged when he wasn't getting touches (most of the game). Those two dunks over Mozgov were really nice though.

Defense is still a serious WIP.

whitehops · Post #17 » by **whitehops** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:53 pm

Notanoob wrote:Drummond looks like he's made real progress in his post game. I was impressed. I hope that they feed him more, he looked disengaged when he wasn't getting touches (most of the game). Those two dunks over Mozgov were really nice though.

Defense is still a serious WIP.

he got a ton of post isos in preseason and it carried over to yesterday's game. it looks like SVG has real confidence in dre's improvement.

sca · Post #18 » by **sca** » Thu Nov 6, 2014 3:28 am

Really slow start from Drummond. Is he playing injured or sth? Couldn't find time to watch any Pistons game.

Navas · Post #19 » by **Navas** » Thu Nov 6, 2014 3:48 am

He's been getting into foul trouble. Some of the fouls are deserved, some for the mere act of breathing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Doormatt · Post #20 » by **Doormatt** » Thu Nov 6, 2014 4:28 am

sca wrote:Really slow start from Drummond. Is he playing injured or sth? Couldn't find time to watch any Pistons game.

no hes been averaging 5.4 fouls per game in 26mpg, which is **** infuriating since i drafted this guy in the second round for my fantasy team.