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The Detroit Pistons are eyeing a return to the playoffs in 2015-16. They’ll be looking to do so while riding on the broad shoulders of 6-foot-11, 280-pound Andre Drummond.
This will be Drummond’s fourth season in the league. Each season, his numbers tick upwards a little more. He has quite possibly become the most feared offensive rebounder in the game.
But that nagging thorn in his side, the dreaded free throw line, appears not to have changed a bit.
Through seven games of the pre-season, Drummond has hit on only 7-of-20 from the line. That’s 35 percent. It’s just not good enough.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand Drummond’s game. He’s an in-the-paint monster that will grab 15 to 20 rebounds a night. He’ll intimidate guards trying to convert at the rim.
And while I get that offense will never be his strong suit and shooting the ball is far from his greatest asset, there is no reason he needs to continue to post free throw numbers that frankly have never been seen before in the long history of the NBA.
Bad Company
Ben Wallace is the worst free throw shooter of all time, at 41%. Through Andre’s first three seasons, his number comes in a shade under 40.
So it’s not nitpicking here. It’s not looking at a guy who’s popping them in at about fifty percent and demanding he improve to seventy. It’s merely expecting, or hoping, that a professional basketball player with one severe weakness that should require the bulk of his attention each off-season find a way to get even slightly better from year to year. It hasn’t happened yet.
Drummond’s rookie year was 37%. Year two was 42%. Last year was 39%, and this pre-season an even more alarming 35%.
And if the Pistons do emerge as a playoff team in the East, don’t think for a second that teams won’t start hammering Drummond in close games down the stretch. Dwight Howard gets this treatment all the time, and he’s a career 57-percenter at the line.
It appears that Drummond is content going through his NBA career just as his predecessor Wallace did, continuing to do the things he does well but never really sharpening the weaker points of his game. Wallace famously played 16 seasons in the league and not once did he finish the year 50 percent or better from the free throw line.
And the thing that I always found so confusing with Big Ben was the complete lack of change in his approach and technique in regard to his foul shooting. For a guy that was so inept for so long, his routine remained shockingly consistent.
Like, if you are doing anything in sports really badly for a really long time, wouldn’t common sense suggest that you at least try something different? I don’t care if the new way brings about similar results. At least show the world you are looking for a solution! Cal Ripken, Jr. would come to spring training nearly every year with a new batting stance; and that guy was a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
So here’s hoping that at some point, Drummond goes in a different direction at the charity stripe. Maybe start tossing them in underhanded like Rick Barry. Try to fire them in off the glass like Eric Montross (not recommended). Anything but what we’ve seen to this point.
It’s not something that will hold Drummond back from being an integral part of this Pistons team and maybe even becoming an All-Star for the first time in his pro career. But if he does plan on becoming a game-changing center, a player that can carry his team two or three rounds deep in the playoffs, he cannot continue to remain a record-breaking liability from the line.
Critical Year For The Pistons
It’s an unguarded 15-foot shot in which no variable ever changes. It’s the same in every gym and every arena in the country. Just practice enough, with the proper willingness to change, and you’d have a very hard time not figuring out a way to become a 50 or 60 percent shooter. At the worst.
This is a very important season for Stan Van Gundy and the Detroit Pistons. The franchise has been absent from the playoffs since 2009 and hasn’t won a single playoff game since 2008. There’s enough depth and young talent on this roster for that to change.
But the face of the team needs to turn his glaring weakness into something that at least won’t jump out of the box score and slap you in the face.
The Pistons lost their most recent pre-season contest 99-94 to the Charlotte Hornets. Andre Drummond was a beast, posting 21 points and 15 rebounds.
But he attempted six free throws and found success just once. Five missed free throws and a five-point loss.
He doesn’t need to be 100%. He doesn’t need to be Yao Ming and shoot in the mid-80s. But 37 or 38 will not cut it.
The margin for error on this team is too thin. They cannot leave a handful of points on the board every night and expect their sheer advantage in talent to win the day.
The guys at the end of the bench just need to tie their shoes and encourage their teammates during time outs. But the best players, the ones due for $100-million contracts in the coming years; you expect excellence, or at least something close to it. Or in the specific case of Drummond and his free-throw shooting, at least something semi-respectable.
The Pistons begin the regular season this Tuesday night in Atlanta. It will likely be a close game in the final minutes and Stan Van Gundy will have a very tough decision to make.
Keep his most dominant player on the court and risk the other team fouling him? Or go small, sacrifice defense and rebounding, but rest easy knowing you can’t commit a turnover with two missed free throws?
Hopefully Drummond knocks a few down along the way and makes the whole thing a moot point.
Otherwise, it could be a very long and brick-filled year again in the Motor City.
