Saturday night’s matchup between Philadelphia and Detroit will feature a really entertaining frontcourt matchup. In one corner, we have Andre Drummond, who is having a very solid campaign, partly because he’s absolutely mauling opponents on the boards to the tune of 15.2 rebounds per game. In the other, we have Joel Embiid, who continues to look like one of the league’s brightest young stars when he’s not trolling people.
Before the game, Embiid thought it would be fun to get under Drummond’s skin a little bit. Embiid met with the media to talk about the matchup, and took a shot at Drummond’s shooting ability.
#Sixers Joel Embiid on Andre Drummond's versatile role in #Pistons offense: "No disrespect, but he can't shoot…"
Wow.
— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) December 2, 2017
So Embiid is correct, Drummond is not a good shooter. Drummond doesn’t shoot jump shots all that often, and he has only attempted one three this season. He’s also a notoriously bad free throw shooter, to the point that his 63.9 percent clip this season is the best he’s shot by the line in his career by about 22 percentage points.
But the thing that makes Drummond such an intriguing player is that he’s able to succeed despite his inability to shoot. He does his offensive work around the rim, usually by doing the dirty work that comes via rebounding misses, as evidenced by the fact that he has led the league in offensive rebounding every year since the 2013-14 season.
This year, Drummond has also become a much-improved passer, and is actually fourth in the league in assists per game among centers. It’s been part of his new role in the team’s offense, and Drummond has actually said “I take pride in trying to get 5-7 assists a game and it’s a lot more fun for me to run around and get my guys going.”
Drummond and Embiid are going to battle for one another this evening, and it’s going to be a ton of fun. While either dude could come out on top, if one thing is for certain, Drummond isn’t going to try and shoot all that much.
UPDATE: Drummond sounds like he’s ready to take on Embiid. When asked about the second-year big man’s comments about his shooting ability, Drummond fired back and said that Embiid is too fragile to talk trash.
In response to Embiid, Drummond told me, "I mean you can't really have a conversation with a man who can't play a back-to-back… I've been playing for six years and I've missed maybe 4-5 games. So when he can play a whole season without taking a rest, he can come talk to me."
— Johnny Kane (@JohnnyKaneBSD) December 2, 2017
Aside from the fact that it is a little funny that the main Embiid diss people say is “he hasn’t stayed healthy,” Drummond seems like he’s ready to go after this line from Embiid.
