Center’s breakout year may be one for books
Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy watches center Andre Drummond score at least 15 points and grab at least 15 rebounds often enough that he wonders what happened when Drummond only has 11 rebounds in a game.
“You just sort of expect it every night to where the guy has a 12or 13-rebound night and it’s a bad night,” Van Gundy said.
Van Gundy considers this fact, too: Drummond won’t be 23 until Aug. 10.
“You expect so much and then sometimes forget how young he is,” Van Gundy said. “You want more consistency and you go, ‘Gosh, the guy is 22 years old.’ ”
Drummond, an All-Star for the first time this season, is one of the league’s dominant big men. He averages 16.8 points and 15 rebounds and is trying to become the first player since Kevin Love in 2010-11 and just the fifth player in the past 35 seasons to average at least 16 points and 15 rebounds in a season.
“This past summer, I was like, ‘This is it. This is my time to really break out and show everybody I’m ready to take this team over,’ ” Drummond told USA TODAY Sports.
Heading into Wednesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, Drummond led the league in 20-20 games (five), 15-15 games (25) and double-doubles (51), and the Pistons were in eighth place in the East, fighting for a playoff spot for the first time since 2009.
He is a ferocious dunker, tenacious rebounder and improving low-post player with an expanding repertoire of moves, accentuated in Van Gundy’s pick-and-roll, space-the-floor offense.
“It gives me space to operate to create either a shot or to give it out to an open shooter,” said Drummond, who runs a nice twoman game with guard Reggie Jackson.
Earlier in his career, Drummond was a dunker and not much else on the offensive end. Now in the low post, he has a hook shot with either hand, uses the baseline to his advantage and has good hands near the basket.
His footwork and ballhandling have improved. He has up-andunder moves near the basket and can take players off the dribble from the perimeter. He even surprised Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul with a behind- the-back crossover.
“It’s just being comfortable with doing it and not thinking about it,” Drummond said. “It comes with time, repetition, working on it.”
Drummond dedicated a majority of his offseason to improving, the first time he made such a thorough commitment. He took classes at Connecticut, where he played a season of college basketball, and spent a majority of his time in Santa Barbara, Calif. He worked out almost daily.
“Just shooting thousands of jump hooks, driving to the basket, finishing in different ways. Days and hours of just the same thing over and over again,” Drummond said.
Drummond also spent important hours at P3 – Peak Performance Project, the sports science lab run by Harvard-educated doctor Marcus Elliott in Santa Barbara. There, staffers learned Drummond — at 6-11, 279 pounds — had the movement qualities of a guard and devised a plan that would make him a more powerful and efficient runner. They also created exercise programs that trained his ankles and feet to absorb and create force, which helps prevent injury and makes him a more explosive jumper.
“He put in daily work for probably the first time. Just that amount of repetition No. 1 improves your skills and No. 2 adds to your confidence,” Van Gundy said.
Free throws remain Drummond’s biggest problem. He is shooting a career-low 35.9% on foul shots at 7.8 attempts per game. He is leaving points on the table and is a Hack-A-Shaq target.
“It’ll start to drastically affect his minutes on the floor,” Van Gundy said. “So it’s something he’s got to really focus on and make some improvement.”
There’s no question the Pistons are building around Drummond, who likes the franchise and wants to be part of a successful rebuild. He has developed a good relationship with owner Tom Gores and said the two are in constant communication.
“Andre has made me a better owner,” Gores said in an email to USA TODAY Sports. “He’s gotten me closer to how players think, the things that are important to them, the ways I can support the team. I’m proud that he is representing our franchise with those qualities and good old-fashioned Detroit toughness as well.”
Drummond will be a restricted free agent in the offseason and is interested in signing a long-term deal with the Pistons.
“I’ve found a love for this place,” Drummond said.
Gores indicated he will do what’s necessary to retain Drummond.
“It starts with our commitment to winning,” the owner said in the email. “We brought in Stan, we’ve invested in player development, we’ve reshaped our roster to be more cohesive and complementary, and it’s starting to show up in the results. I think Andre understands our plan and embraces it.”