Andre Drummond - LeBron's Robin

One game.. when I hire a guy, even a veteran it takes three months to bring him up to speed. Newbies are a net negative for the first year, and may tread water for a couple years..

Drummond has been here. There were shit teams in Detroit for much of his tenure there.. He understands the situation..

Drummond joined a bad team on a really bad stretch with almost no practice against an elite team. Pretty unfair to make any judgments this early.

jking948 said:

Guys, the team barely ran any plays. I just watched the short version. They were running basic sets that every team knows how to defend - especially one who has Doc Rivers as the coach.

Yesterday's game signals nothing about Drummond's fit on the team or the rest of the season. Just move on.

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Nobody was beating the clippers yesterday. Even if they played the Buck's that would have been an epic battle.

The clips were so good last night. They are going to be tough in the playoffs. Worst game to get a new player up to speed

The Clippers were super locked in.

But it was so damn effortless for Paul George.
Hes a really good player, but I dont think he had to make a single difficult shot the whole night.

Cavs should sign MKG. Throw him out there and see what it looks like to have a lockdown wing with this group.

Rich said:

The Clippers were super locked in.

But it was so damn effortless for Paul George.
Hes a really good player, but I dont think he had to make a single difficult shot the whole night.

Cavs should sign MKG. Throw him out there and see what it looks like to have a lockdown wing with this group.

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MKG already going to Mavericks per reports. Unless that fell through. But he's 100 percent joining a contender.

The list of #2 picks who've become monumental busts is pretty astounding

Bringing in Drummond against the Clippers(who might very well be the best team in the league when all said and done), coming off a loss, was going to bad. Everybody was out of whack and they were more motivated than they might have been. It was a recipe for a disaster.

Kevin Love pointed out that with Drummond on the floor all of Love's shots were 3-pointers, except one where his foot was on the line. There was no point in Love posting up because with Drummond also in the low post Love could easily be doubled by Drummond's man. If Dre clears out to the perimeter his man will just double Love since Dre isn't a 3-point threat. At least I don't think he is.

Drummond says he's been working on his 3-point shot for eight years but the Pistons never let him shoot it. Beilein gave him the green light and he's 2-for-3 so far. Can Drummond become a "3-and-D" center?

If Love becomes strictly a spot-up shooter I don't know how effective he will be. It's not that hard to defend him on the perimeter because he's not a threat to drive. Just crowd him to make it tough to get the shot off in rhythm. If he drives by you don't worry about it - the shot clock will expire by the time he gets to the rim.

Seriously, I wonder if the addition of Drummond will negatively affect Love's game. The prevailing wisdom is that when we dump the ball down to Dre in the low post it will force Kevin's man to double Dre, leaving Love open at the 3-point line. I suspect most teams will just let Dre's man take him alone rather than give Love an uncontested 3. I'm not sure that's what we want given Drummond's shaky free throw shooting. But if he can get the opponent's bigs in foul trouble....

If Drummond's man doubles Love, he can just toss the ball up near the rim where Drummond will finish.

bigdog123 said:

If Drummond's man doubles Love, he can just toss the ball up near the rim where Drummond will finish.

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If Love is crowded on the perimeter, he can also find the backdoor guy.

I think it is going to take time. I do wonder about Drummonds overall impact on the defense. The lane was open more than I thought it should be.

The clippers prevented much ball movement which has been good lately. I doubt we see many of the same struggles today.

Wham with the Right Hand said:

Seriously, I wonder if the addition of Drummond will negatively affect Love's game. The prevailing wisdom is that when we dump the ball down to Dre in the low post it will force Kevin's man to double Dre, leaving Love open at the 3-point line. I suspect most teams will just let Dre's man take him alone rather than give Love an uncontested 3. I'm not sure that's what we want given Drummond's shaky free throw shooting. But if he can get the opponent's bigs in foul trouble....

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It seems as though Love has been trending to playing more outside even before Drummond arrived. About half of his shots were already threes. If Beilein knows what he's doing, they should still be able to play both Drummond and Love in the post. If Drummond is on the back side and his man tries to double Love on the post, that should in theory leave Drummond open or a shooter on the backside.

cavaliers421 said:

It seems as though Love has been trending to playing more outside even before Drummond arrived. About half of his shots were already threes. If Beilein knows what he's doing, they should still be able to play both Drummond and Love in the post. If Drummond is on the back side and his man tries to double Love on the post, that should in theory leave Drummond open or a shooter on the backside.

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The question is, if Love is at the Elbow and Drummon is in the post, can a guard get in there at all?

LeeBuckeye said:

The list of #2 picks who've become monumental busts is pretty astounding

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- Stromile Swift (2000)
- Jay Williams (2002) (injury)
- Darko Milicic (2003)
- Emeka Okafor (2004)
- Michael Beasley (2008)
- Hasheem Thabeet (2009)
- Evan Turner (2010)
- Derrick Williams (2011)
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012)
- Jabari Parker (2014)

Marvin Williams (2005) has carved out a nice career for himself, but he was still never a star. Deron Williams and Chris Paul were the next two picks after Williams in 2005.

Tyson Chandler (2001), LaMarcus Aldridge (2006), Kevin Durant (2007), Victor Oladipo (2013), and D'Angelo Russell (2015) have all made all-star games, but only Durant is a generational type player (Aldridge was very, very good at his peak as well).

Jury is still out on Brandon Ingram (2016), Lonzo Ball (2017), Marvin Bagley (2018), and Ja Morant (2019). Ingram looks like a perennial all-star if he can stay healthy. Lonzo looks to be a rotation guy, not an all-star. The next three picks after Bagley were Doncic, Jaren Jackson, and Trae Young, so that pick was a bust unless he turns into a perennial all-star, which I don't see happening. Morant is the favorite for ROY this year and looks like a future star.

But still though, it's pretty weird that you can look back at pretty much the past 20 years of #2 picks, and really the only big time ballers that were there are KD and Aldridge.

Stark said:

- Stromile Swift (2000)
- Jay Williams (2002) (injury)
- Darko Milicic (2003)
- Emeka Okafor (2004)
- Michael Beasley (2008)
- Hasheem Thabeet (2009)
- Evan Turner (2010)
- Derrick Williams (2011)
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012)
- Jabari Parker (2014)

Marvin Williams (2005) has carved out a nice career for himself, but he was still never a star. Deron Williams and Chris Paul were the next two picks after Williams in 2005.

Tyson Chandler (2001), LaMarcus Aldridge (2006), Kevin Durant (2007), Victor Oladipo (2013), and D'Angelo Russell (2015) have all made all-star games, but only Durant is a generational type player (Aldridge was very, very good at his peak as well).

Jury is still out on Brandon Ingram (2016), Lonzo Ball (2017), Marvin Bagley (2018), and Ja Morant (2019). Ingram looks like a perennial all-star if he can stay healthy. Lonzo looks to be a rotation guy, not an all-star. The next three picks after Bagley were Doncic, Jaren Jackson, and Trae Young, so that pick was a bust unless he turns into a perennial all-star, which I don't see happening. Morant is the favorite for ROY this year and looks like a future star.

But still though, it's pretty weird that you can look back at pretty much the past 20 years of #2 picks, and really the only big time ballers that were there are KD and Aldridge.

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Can we have a list of the #8 picks who have been huge busts.

bigdog123 said:

If Drummond's man doubles Love, he can just toss the ball up near the rim where Drummond will finish.

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Yeah, I'm thinking put Dre at the opposite elbow and if his man drops down to double Love then Dre just comes right down the lane for a lob from Love.