Andre Drummond: The Most Puzzling NBA Player

Hi Smash Fans, I hope you all are having a wonderful day. In this week’s installment, I want to talk about the most puzzling player in the NBA: Andre Drummond. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Andre Drummond is the only player in the NBA that I have ever seen that can put up the same or similar stats in back-to-back games while still playing drastically different in those games. A great example of this was the first two games of the Lakers’ first-round playoff match-up against the Suns.

In game one of this playoff series, Andre Drummond put up a stat line of 9 rebounds, 12 points, a steal, a block, and all in 19 minutes. In game 2 of this series, Drummond grabbed 12 rebounds, scored 15 points, snagged 2 steals, and blocked a shot, all in 24 minutes. Now, these two stats lines are not that different from each other. If you adjusted stats for both games and put them in the per 36-minute metric, Drummond’s state line for game 1 is 17 rebounds, 23 points, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. In-game 2, using the same metric, Andre Drummond would have ended the game with 18 rebounds, 23 points, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. Those two stat lines are nearly identical, yet if you ask any person who’s knowledgeable about basketball and watched the past two Lakers’ games, they would say that Drummond was horrific in game 1 and great in game 2. How can both of the statements I made be true? How is it possible for a player to have virtually the same stats but have a horrible outing in one game and a great performance in the other? The answer: the eye test.

The eye test is the second part of the grading player equation and it is just as important, if not more important than the first part of the equation. It is the eye test that put CP3 in the MVP conversation this past year, it allows us to know that LeBron is still not 100%, and it shows us the fact that Marcus Smart is better than Kemba Walker. It is the eye test that allows people who are paying attention to see that Drummond can play so much better and so much worse than what his stats would suggest. In short, Andre Drummond is a great example of how much intangibles matter, because there are some games where he has the “it” factor and other games where he doesn’t, but that never stops him from putting up his double-double.

Thank you Smash Fans for sticking with me until the end. If you want to talk about this topic or any other topic sports-related, please email me or text me using the information on the contact page. If you want to support me even more, please consider following my Spotify as well as subscribing to my youtube channel and blog for weekly podcasts and articles. Until next time, PD Smash signing off