Season Review: Andre Drummond Puts the NBA on Notice
Andre Drummond scratched the surface of how good he can be in the 2015-2016 season. It's no secret that Drummond was one of the best centers in the NBA, only behind Sacramento Kings superstar DeMarcus Cousins.
Drummond was the catalyst for Detroit throughout their season of growth. He led Detroit to a 44-38 record, good enough for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons would then go on to be swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Drummond is the pillar in Stan Van Gundy's masterful offensive system. In the 2015-2016 campaign, Andre Drummond showed that teams can still build around a bigman in today's shrinking NBA.
Andre Drummond stuffed the stat sheet last season. He averaged a career high 16.2 points and a league leading 14.8 rebounds per game. He also averaged 1,5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. He missed only one game last season, which was the last game of the regular season. He rested in preparation for the playoffs that day. While Drummond had a great season, he did not struggle in one major area of his game.
Drummond shot a league and career worst 35.5% from the free throw line. He averaged 7.2 free throw attempts per game. Many of Drummond's attempts were in the Hack-A-Drummond situation, where teams purposely fouled him to make him shoot two free throws. Drummond's free throw woes forced him to sit out many games throughout the season. While his free throw shooting is a problem, that problem should not be as big of one come next season.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said the league wants to fix the Hack-A-Player rule. Silver wants to change the rule so that poor free throw shooters such as Drummond cannot be hacked continuously throughout the game off the ball. That is good news for Drummond, as that will only help his game dominant even more than it does now.
Andre Drummond had a stellar season with Detroit and has a huge offseason ahead of him. Drummond is now a restricted free agent. He is the top restricted free agent in the class and while he seems to be a lock to return to Detroit, it is not certain. If not the Pistons, a team will offer Drummond a max contract. He is a max level player, and the Pistons know that. They will be on the phone with Drummond as soon as free agency begins.
Andre Drummond is the future of the Detroit Pistons. He is the bigman of the future, and the key to Detroit's title hopes in the future.
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