Andre Drummond: Sixers Have Great Core For Years To Come
Contributor- Ryan Straub
The Sixers have certainly done their fair share in the free agency window this summer. They’ve added solid role players like Caleb Martin and Eric Gordon, re-signed core pieces in Kelly Oubre and Tyrese Maxey, and of course, made a massive splash to sign Paul George to a maximum contract slot. But there is one addition, or really re-addition, to the squad that is leaving fans rejoiced.
Andre Drummond is back in a Sixers uniform. After witnessing the abysmal rebounding effort that the Sixers displayed during their playoff series loss to the Knicks, in which they were outrebounded by nearly 5 rebounds per game throughout the series, Drummond is a guy who will not only help this problem but make it his entire mission.
Related: Andre Drummond Returns To Sixers On A 2-Year Deal
Rebounding: Is There A Philosophy To It?
Drummond is undoubtedly the best pure rebounder in the NBA, averaging nearly 19 boards per 36 minutes. When asked how he rebounds so efficiently, or if he has any sort of philosophy to it, he said: “I’ll be honest. So what I do is wherever team I play for, whoever I play with, you’ll catch me, I’ll sit there and watch certain players shoot, and I’ll see what their misses look like. And that’s how I really learned how to rebound for teams that I play for […] I watch, I pay attention to what I play with”
Appreciating the importance of rebounding is also crucial when it comes to building a team that wants to compete for a championship. When push comes to shove, the team that is able to control the glass tends to walk away victorious. Rebounding is most definitely a skill, but it’s also just effort and desire to go up and get them. Down the stretch in the 4th quarter of a playoff game, it’s demoralizing to give your opponent extra possessions.
The Sixers gave up 87 offensive rebounds during the series against the Knicks for an average of 14.5 per game. Drummond is extremely excited to be back in Philly and plans on filling this need that the Sixers desperately needed: “It definitely feels good to have your game appreciated. Because what I do isn’t sexy. It’s not the things you see on the sport’s top ten. Like, you don’t see what I do on TV, but it’s appreciated that I help winning and that’s the most important thing.”
Andre Drummond Is Excited To Play With Embiid & Maxey Under Nick Nurse
It cannot be argued that Drummond was the best backup center that we have seen Joel Embiid have, with the non-Embiid minutes continuing to kill the Sixers in the past.
With Embiid’s noted health issues, Drummond realizes the importance of his role, saying “his growth over the years has been amazing. I think he’s just found the more seriousness of the game, of what he needs to do with his body to be able to play these games at a high level consistently. And I think that’s been his biggest knock in his career, being available. […] That’s another piece of why I want to be here, just to make sure that I can help him the best way I can.”
What we hardly saw during Drummond’s first tenure with the squad was him teaming up with Tyrese Maxey. Maxey was certainly not the major piece that he is now, but his growth in the time that Drummond was gone surely caught his eye: “I saw that from the beginning. Just his work ethic was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in somebody his age, especially for a kid who was kind of thrown into the fire.”
And as for Nick Nurse, Drummond had this to say about his new coach: “He’s a great coach. Champion. He is a very different kind, of course. And what I heard in a really good way, I think he is gonna be able to help me project my game in a way that I haven’t seen before, at least in what he said to me. So I’m looking forward to what he’s trying to bring out of me.”
Only time will tell if this signing ends up helping the Sixers, but for the time being, we have every reason to believe that it will.