It might be time to start adding Andre Drummond to the NBA's next great big man discussion, especially if he keeps putting up numbers like the ones he did Tuesday night.
Andre Drummond grabs every rebound
The young Pistons center is cleaning the glass as well as anyone in NBA history so far.
The Pistons fell to the Pacers, 94-82, but it was Detroit's young big man that stole the show. Drummond scored 25 points and pulled down an amazing 29 rebounds. Yes, you read that second number correctly. He's now averaging 20.3 points and 19.5 rebounds per game this season, and is the first player since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 to score at least 75 points and grab at least 75 rebounds in his team's 1st four games, per Elias Sports Bureau.
Think about all the big men that have come around over the past 40 years, but never pulled that off. Kareem. Walton. Moses. Hakeem. Shaq. Duncan. Drummond has now accomplished something none of these legends have.
Drummond is leading the league in rebounds and offensive rebounds (7.5) per game and he's snaring 25 percent of all available rebounds when he's on the floor, per NBA.com. That number puts him ahead of Rudy Gobert (23.5), DeMarcus Cousins (22.9), DeAndre Jordan (21.7) and Tyson Chander (20.3). Enes Kanter (31) is the only player among those seeing real playing time that's ahead of Drummond.
Dig a little deeper and you'll see that these video game numbers aren't the result of Drummond padding his stats by pulling down a punch of cupcakes off missed free throws. Drummond is grabbing a league high 8.5 contested rebounds per game and coming down with possession nearly 44 percent of the time when going for a contested ball.
At seven-feet and 280 pounds, Drummond is a physical beast, but he uses more than his body to clear the glass. Now in his fourth year in the league, Drummond has mastered the art of rebounding as well. His strength get him position. His touch and understanding of timing is what gets him the ball.
He’s also scoring 20 points a game despite almost never creating his own offense or shooting from outside the paint. The offensive glass is where Drummond does most of his damage. He uses the same mix of skills and smarts to coral the ball and quickly put it back up to the rim. His ability to softly tap the ball back into the basket with either hand is especially valuable given his problems at the free throw line.
The scary part is that Drummond just turned 22 in August. What will his game look like after three years? Dwight Howard? Moses Malone? Someone else? A mix of both? All these numbers and highlights are even more special knowing that Drummond is only now learning how to play the NBA game.
It was easy to poke fun of Stan Van Gundy when he turned down the eventual-champion Warriors two summers ago in favor of Detroit. There were many reasons why he did that, but the presence of Drummond is somewhere on that list. Van Gundy couldn't pass up the chance to coach the NBA's next great center.
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