ruckus wrote:
Although Drummond is a great rebounder, I don't think it makes up for his shortcomings in other areas. He doesn't spread the floor, his post game is average at best and although he's been better this year, his passing isn't much to speak about.
In the playoffs we saw teams let him shoot all he wants from 3, it means he's nowhere near the rim to do what a centre should be doing, passing out of the post, putting pressure on the defence by going for offensive rebounds, cutting in for high percentage lob dunks. His 2 point percentage this season is, quite frankly, embarrassing (37.6%). He's really fallen off offensively. At least Drummond can dunk the ball at the rim on a lob.
ruckus wrote: Plus, his defense isn't all that great either.
1.9 blocks per game, and a defensive box +/- of 4.6, better than Gasol's numbers in those areas in spite of the fact that he plays on a bad team with the two other decent players on the team both out (Reggie Jackson and Blake Griffin).
ruckus wrote:A straight swap of Gasol for Drummond makes us weaker in every area on the floor outside of rebounding.
You're comparing him to Gasol from last year, not exhausted and now injured Gasol from this season. Other than defence, Gasol from this season has been pretty terrible. I would argue that at least part of the positive defence is that our team overall is a good defensive one, a lot of his Box +/- number was built when we had everyone healthy and were winning a bunch of games against bad teams before he got injured.
What it really comes down to is that Gasol is out. Drummond is a player who can play and Gasol can't, probably because the strain of a long playoff run followed by extensive offseason play and inevitable age related decline. Maybe he'll get healthy at some point this season, maybe his play will pick up a bit after an extended rest, we can only hope. If Siakam wasn't also out for an extended period of time, it would probably be fine, but the Raptors are trying to stay in this Eastern Conference seeding fight with injuries piling up. Maybe the answer is becoming sellers instead of buyers, but in my view if the goal is to compete this season something needs to be done.
