OT: Pistons select Andre Drummond
You heard it here first. The Stones will make the playoffs this year! Another great pick by Dumars. Thats his 3rd good pick in a row. On a sad note, now I have to spend another $300 on NBA League Pass. Am I the only one excited about this?
Edit: I know the kid shoots free throws worse than Ben Wallace, but the Pistons need shot blocking and rebounding. Hopefully Monroe, Stuckey, Jerebko, Knight, Prince, etc, can do the heavy lifting on the scoreboard. Check out his highlight video on Youtube. I don't know how to embed...
Otherwise he's going to be shooting free throws all game and won't get to play in the 4th quarter except for defense.
Woooo! Orlando Johnson may have just saved basketball in Sactown! Traded to Indiana for cash.
All I have to say is I would much, much, much rather have Drummond than Henson.
Seems as if people forget that Tayshaun Prince Jr. was about to be the Pistons's pick at 9. The dude could only put up 185 five times, and he's supposed to be a PF. I can put up 185 five times, and I'm only 5'9. Drummond over Henson all day.
I'm kind of surprised WIlliam Buford's still on the board. I feel like he has NBA size/game.
Maybe if he left 3 years ago. He never improved.
DOODLE JUMP?!
It has been a good night.
Andre Drummond says, "No homo."
One thing that has been overlooked thus far....
The mask might be making its return to The Palace:
I also can't wait for these things to start popping up in the stands:
Good to see Robbie Hummel get picked. Hope he sticks.
I like it. Of course, I am not ashamed to say I liked the Darko pick at the time... I think this will open up Monroe a bit more and maybe even slide him to PF where I think he would thrive. Drummond is capable of doing all of the things Monroe isn't good at and Monroe is a 20-10 guy. I like the pick. Now that basketball player is this kids profession maybe he will commit to working on his shot. If he can do that this will have been a very smart pick.
We still don't have a wing player that can guard anyone...and this isn't a knock on Drummond because there wasn't anyone available at #9 to fit that bill, we would've had to have hoped MKG fell to #5 and we could trade up to get him.
Anyway, hopefully we can grab a FA that can guard the wing because that's where the game is headed. Drummond was a solid pick, but he's not going to play starters minutes because #1 he can't shoot FTs and #2 teams are playing smaller and Monroe will have to play center half the time.
Look at how the league is moving...teams are putting the scoring SF at PF to get another wing on the floor. And I'm not just talking James and Durant.
So with that said, I think we have to go out and get someone who can defend. We've got some solid young players but we don't have a young team that can run and put points on the board and outscore people or a team that can lock down anyone either...we're kind of caught in the middle.
If we can get a perimeter defender, even if he comes off the bench...to go with a natural scorer, we're in business.That's a HUGE IF.
Once Drummond is ready to contribute, his size and athleticism will make everybody on the court a better defender. Obviously Drummond has a long way to go, (he's only 18), but geez he is going to be a force around the basket. 7 feet tall with a 7'6'' wing span is going to be intimidating, especially when it is combined with someone of Drummond's mobility.
It's nice to have a "perimeter defender", but the finals showed you that when a super star player has it going, there's nothing you can do about it. LeBron still dropped 30 a night on Selfalosha and Durant still dropped 30 on LeBron, the best defender in the game. If teams go to a smaller more athletic lineup, that speaks better for Drummond than the drastically less athletic Greg Monroe.
Also Drummond's FT percentage will improve drastically so no need to worry about that, and if it doesnt as long as he defends and rebounds the scoring will take care of itself. We need a future Defensive Player of the Year, not a go to player in the post. We already have that in Monroe
Lebron is the best defender in the game?
Who are you talking about?
The list of teams in the modern era that have won the championship without any true centers or a low post threat consist of this Miami team, the Bulls with the best player of all time (and even they had Cartwright for defense the first 3), and the Bad Boy Pistons (who threw waves at you, played great team defense, and got low post scoring from weird spots, like small forward). Other than that you're looking at Moses, McHale-Parrish, Kareem, Hakeem, Duncan-Robinson, Shaq, Chandler & Dirk, Garnett, Gasol, even the 2nd gen Pistons were at their best when Rasheed would play some low post game to go with heaving threes (and had Wallace playing defense alongside him).
The reason teams are going that way is because there aren't enough good big men to play there. And you can get away with it if you have one of the best players of all time on your team. Those are even harder to find than rare big men.
Whatcha talkin bout Dumars?
who would you have picked instead of Drummond at 9? Austin Rivers? Henson? Not me. I think at 9 this was a steal. He could be a bust, but I would rather have a bust at the 9 spot than the 2 spot and this guy was nearly selected at 5 the freep reported. I love that we are getting gargantuan. Now we need to add more skill and playmaking at the forward position. Love Maxiel and Prince but its time to use their value or lose it.
Love the pick. Drummond is a perfect compliment to Monroe. Monroe is very skilled, but lacks athleticism big time. Drummond can rebound, block shots, play helpside D & get garbage points. He doesn't need a post game really because Monroe gives us that. Drummond is athletic enough to run the pick & roll, plus has athleticism to finish at the rim that Monroe can struggle with at times. At #9, this was a no-brainer IMHO.
Good draft overall, nbadraft.net gave the Pistons an A. Another thing to keep in mind is that last year's second round pick Kyle Singler is coming to play next year. It'll be interesting to see who of Kim English, Khris Middleton, Kyle Singler, and Vernon Macklin make the team.
The kid has some flaws in his game, but that UConn team was incredibly dysfunctional last year, and that undoubtedly slowed down his maturation. Still, he's got size and athleticism to player the 4/5 well, and at 9 it wasn't like there were sure things around him. I think he makes sense going forward given how the team is constructed, and with Monroe I expect the frontcourt to be a strength for this team over the next 4-5 years.