Andre Drummond is regarded as one of the greatest rebounders of his generation, but it turns out he has been padding up his stats by using the simplest trick in the book. Drummond recently appeared on the Run Your Race podcast, where he admitted he had intentionally missed shots to get more rebounds.
Theo Pinson: “I’mma call a spade a spade. Were there times you missed shots on purpose to get the rebound?”
Andre Drummond: “Yeah.”
Not sure it was the smartest idea to admit to that. Drummond has hauled in 3,656 offensive rebounds in his career and you wonder how many of those were thanks to him intentionally missing shots.
Drummond’s tactics have helped him win four rebounding titles in his career, in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020. He averaged over four offensive rebounds per game in all four seasons.
While this revelation does lead me to look at Drummond in a bit of a different light, there is still no denying that he is a great rebounder. He averages 12.4 rebounds per game for his career, which ranks 15th all-time, and that’s despite playing only 27.2 minutes per game on average. Had he gotten more playing time like some other great rebounders from years past, those numbers would have been even higher.
Andre Drummond Will Be Playing A Big Role For The 76ers In 2024-25
Drummond signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency and he is going to play a bigger role in 2024-25 than most had previously expected him to. Earlier this month, Joel Embiid revealed he doesn’t plan on playing back-to-backs ever again, which meant his backup was going to see a fair bit of time on the court.
The 76ers have 13 sets of back-to-back games in the 2024-25 season, which means Drummond is expected to get at least 13 starts. Considering Embiid’s injury history, you’d think the two-time All-Star will inevitably miss a few games apart from that too, so that means even more starts for his backup.
Drummond averaged 8.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Chicago Bulls in a backup role in 2023-24. The 31-year-old is undoubtedly a great option to have off the bench or in a starting role from time to time for the 76ers.
While Drummond won’t come close to matching Embiid’s production, he will help ensure the 76ers don’t get crushed in the minutes that the 2023 MVP is not on the court. It also appears that Embiid personally recruited Drummond during free agency.
“Getting a phone call from the best center in the NBA saying, ‘I need you here’ … it’s hard to tell him no,” Drummond told ESPN. “I spoke to a lot of teams this summer, and he was probably the third or fourth person to call me.
“I wasn’t even expecting to hear from him,” Drummond continued. “…He just gave me an idea of what he was looking for and he needed me to come back to really help him out to win something bigger than him. He’s already been an MVP, he’s got his scoring title … he’s done everything and now he’s going to try to win a championship.”
The 76ers certainly have built their best team of the Embiid era now and anything but a championship would be a massive disappointment. I still don’t consider them to be the favorites in the East, though. The Boston Celtics are still better in my opinion, but the 76ers do have the pieces to potentially cause an upset.
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