Andre Drummond, team leader.
It’s just his second season and Detroit has a locker room with veterans such as Chauncey Billups and Josh Smith, but it has been Drummond reaching out to the Pistons rookies and telling Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell, and Peyton Siva to come to Detroit early for pre-camp workouts, reports the Pistons official site.
“I got Peyton (Siva) to come to town, Tony’s (Mitchell) coming in the next day or two and Kentavious (Caldwell-Pope), too,” Drummond said. “I’m making sure all the rookies come in. Last year, I was here real early. I’m like, ‘You guys need to get here early. Just because you made it to the league, don’t think you can come back when all the veterans come back.’ ”
Those rookies are going to have to fight for minutes off the bench. The Pistons have assembled an interesting roster — I’m not sold on Smith and Brandon Jennings meshing well — but they have some depth now. The rookies are going to have to earn that run.
And that run starts with conditioning.
After Siva experienced his first brisk workout, he acknowledged to Drummond that he felt winded and was happy to have the six weeks until training camp opens to acclimate.
“And I told him, ‘It’s only going to get worse. As soon as training camp comes, it’s running times 10.’ So I’m glad to have him out here with me and the other rookies will be here soon, too.”
Drummond had an impressive rookie season — if he could have stayed healthy he would have been in the Rookie of the Year conversation (I doubt he wins but in the conversation). Drummond averaged 7.9 points a game on 60.8 percent shooting plus was strong on the boards averaging 7.6 a game. And that was with coach Lawrence Frank seeming to hold the reins on him and not really turning him loose.
But can Drummond sustain a level of play that saw him with a PER of 21.6? Obviously he can’t shoot 37.1 percent of free throws and be productive (he’s working on that) but Tom Ziller at SB Nation tried to temper expectations by saying it is more than that.
I’m skeptical of two pieces that made Drummond’s rookie season so spectacular, though: his elite rebounding and his lack of turnovers. Last season, Drummond snared 15.4 percent of his own team’s missed shots, one of the best marks in the league…. Kenneth Faried is a good example of a player who was extraordinary on the offensive glass as a rookie (16.5 percent) only to dip down to very good in his second season (13 percent). That could happen to Drummond on both ends. (He was an outrageous defensive rebounder, too.)
The most unbelievable thing about Drummond as a rookie was his low turnover rate. He didn’t touch the ball as a threat to score a whole lot, but still. For a young, raw big man to have a turnover rate of 12 percent is totally unexpected and a huge boon. For comparison’s sake, Dwight Howard’s turnover rate has never been lower than 15 percent.
But as Drummond gets better he’s going to draw more attention — from defenders not letting him do what he wants in the post and from teams working to keep him off the boards. It’s not that he will not still be could and could be on his way to being the best center in the league, it’s just a question of how efficent he can continue to be as he draws more attention.
Still, he’s showing signs as a locker room leader already on top of his play. That could make his a special player.
