Detroit Pistons: 3 Goals for Andre Drummond for the Upcoming Season

2. Become a More Impactful Defender

Andre Drummond is not a bad defender by any means. He has improved almost every season that he has been in the league. However, the defensive metrics and the box score stats give you the impression that he is an elite defender. He led the league in both defensive rating and defensive win shares according to Basketball Reference. Him and Anthony Davis were the only big men to average over 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last season. However, Andre Drummond is not on the level of an Anthony Davis on defense or some of the top tier defensive centers.

The main reason for that is a lack of discipline and awareness at times defensively. Andre Drummond is not always engaged on defense and sometimes finds himself in no-man’s land on pick-and-rolls or missing an easy block due to a bad rotation. A lot of issues with discipline and awareness do get better with age and Andre Drummond has gotten better in both departments over the last few seasons. There was noticeable improvement out of Drummond last season on the defensive end, but he still has a little ways to go before being considered one of the best defensive centers.

Some of Drummond’s issues defensively, especially with rotations can be attributed to his teammates. Although the Pistons have been a pretty good defensive team under Stan Van Gundy, Andre Drummond has never really played with a group of solid defenders around him. His point guards have usually been sieves defensively, like Reggie Jackson, Will Bynum, Jose Calderon, and Brandon Jennings. The Power Forwards that have lined up next to Drummond on defense have been players like Greg Monroe, Ersan Illyasova, Tobias Harris, and Blake Griffin. Out of this bunch, Blake Griffin is probably the best defensively and he is not regarded at all for his defense. The Pistons have usually had some decent wing defenders, but when your point guards are allowing a lot of penetration and your power forward is not able to step up to help cover, it puts a lot of burden on Andre Drummond and mistakes get made.

Hopefully new coach Dwane Casey can devise a defensive scheme that can help Andre Drummond improve his awareness and rotations.

Drummond also has a tendency to struggle against some of the more traditional ground-bound post up centers. Players like Jonas Valanciunas, Marcin Gortat, Nikola Vucevic, and Brook Lopez always seem to have a field day against Drummond. Drummond tends to bite on their various pump fakes and other moves they use to create space. This is another thing Drummond can get better at with experience.

Andre Drummond has the physical tools to be an all-time great defender. He has elite athleticism for somebody his size which includes very quick hands, which shows with the 1.6 steals per game he averaged last season. He has a 7’6″ wingspan, which is one of the longest in the league. If Andre Drummond can keep his focus defensively the whole game and get better with his rotations at times, he can fulfill his defensive potential. That should be a goal for him this season.