Detroit Pistons: Anonymous Scouts Dish on 2016-17 Season Outlook
By Zac Snyder
Andre Drummond
Naturally, the first comment about Andre Drummond is about his free throw shooting.
"There’s a real risk that Drummond is gonna get his head messed up with the free throw stuff, like Bierdrins did. The free throw thing is still really bad. He’s starting to hot potato the ball a little bit when he gets it."
Preseason play so far has given us a very limited sample size to deal with but it does not give great hopes that Drummond will suddenly be a competent free throw shooter this season. He shot 35.5% from the line last season and is almost exactly that through four preseason games (35.3%).
Get his head messed up? Perhaps his head was messed up some time ago. His 35.5% free throw shooting last season was the lowest of his career and the strategies used in the offseason in hopes of improving his free throw shooting are both mechanical and mental.
"Defensively I think Drummond’s gotten a little overrated. He’ll have blocks, but he’s mostly average on that end, he struggles in some pick-and-roll situations. It’ll be interesting to see whether Stan can get him better, because he helped Dwight a lot on that end in Orlando. Drummond doesn’t have Dwight’s talent level, but he’s still only 24 years old. If Stan can get him to where’s he an above-average center on defense, closer to top 5 than top 15, maybe like DeAndre Jordan, that could really help them as a team."
I’ll agree that I often wish Drummond was more of a force on the defensive end but I’m starting to wonder if those expectations are set unrealistically high given Drummond’s rare combination of size and athleticism. By defensive rating, an estimate of points allowed per 100 possession, Drummond ranked sixth in the NBA last season. The scout mentions DeAndre Jordan, who finished one spot ahead of Drummond in that category.
However, Drummond doesn’t look as good when viewed through the defensive box plus/minus metric. His 1.6 in that stat placed him well outside the top 20 last season. Regardless of whether Drummond is overrated or properly rated, there is room to grow.