The Andre Drummond Thread

[Jon]

About 4 years from now Chris Grant is going to be looking at his spread sheets and advanced metrics wondering what went wrong as far as passing on this kid because his paperwork told him it was a non fit. 19 YO 6'11 270 pound centers with crazy athleticism are a fit for every team regardless of what the computer tells you.

There is no paperwork and advanced metrics that will tell you what these kids are going to become - and you don't need an advanced math degree to understand the few things that do tend to convey from college to the pros.

So let's not excuse this ... it's Chris Grant's job to consider everything at his disposal and make the right choices. This choice was based on scouting, evaluation, and whom our experts thought would benefit the team the most.

I don't know why they didn't like Drummond, although we know the standard excuses (seems to lack will, terrible free throw shooter, raw skill-wise). Maybe Byron was too influential in the decision? Or maybe adding players the coach wants to work with will be paramount to our success.

Or perhaps they just made a colossal mistake because the draft didn't go as we anticipated? We'll have to see.

 

[jay_em]

For Byron's offense to work, yeah we drafted on need... we desperately needed another ballhandler/shot creater who can also initiate our offense

Drummond is still an offensively raw big guy who propably wouldnt have improved our offense as a whole much (Though Drummond has a soft touch and may be able to develop a consistent jump shot, showed flashes of it in summer league)

Time will tell if we made a mistake not taking Drummond, lets see how he fares against a real Nba Center, obviously everyone can have a good game against Drew Gooden and Larry Sanders defending...

But I was also shocked to see him fall to 9th on draft night, I also see huge potential in him (especially considering defense)

Problem is ball handling, shot creating wings are a dime a dozen. Bigs with Drummond height and athleticism are rare commodities.

And talk about best young cores...Detroit has some nice pieces in Knight, Monroe, Drummond.

 

[Spencer Hawes]

Another friggin impressive performance by Drummond.

In 17 mins of play, 4-7 from the field scoring 9 points, 4 blocks and 3 rebounds. All I can say is FUCK.

 

[mAo_mAo]

Chris Grant will be remembered for the fool who passed up on Barnes, Rivers, Drummond, and Robinson for freaking Dion Waiters. Watching Drummond is drooling. He is the most fluid big man I've seen since Dwight. It also fascinates me that this kid is only 19 years old and already has that freak body.

It frustrates me to think that Drummond and Kyrie could be the next biggest superstars in the East. We could trade Varejao or grabbed someone in free agency for a scorer and not waste a 4th pick with an undersized shooting guard.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Have to admit....I thought our pick would be Drummond when Beal and MKG went before us. Either him or Robinson.

Staying positive on Dion, but I think Drummond will prove to be the 2nd best player from this draft.

 

[Birdy89]

It frustrates me to think that Drummond and Kyrie could be the next biggest superstars in the East. We could trade Varejao or grabbed someone in free agency for a scorer and not waste a 4th pick with an undersized shooting guard.

These are the kind of things that happen when you use computer spread sheets to draft and assemble a team instead of your eyes and brain.

 

[Spencer Hawes]

I thought for sure Drummond was going #2 and after seeing him still available when was picking, I thought it was going to be him or Thomas Robinson and was hoping it would be Drummond.....I was pissed that day. This kid is gonna make all the haters eat their words....especially those that were harping on his free throw and bitching about how he lied about his vertical.....

 

[DrEnoch]

Seeing Drummond play is definitely giving me a bit of a chub. Dude is nasty. I want, and believe that Waiters will be pretty good, but I really don't see him as being better than Drummond or Barnes (both of whom I would have rather had). Oh well. There were plenty of other teams that passed him up after us.

 

[Birdy89]

Seeing Drummond play is definitely giving me a bit of a chub. Dude is nasty. I want, and believe that Waiters will be pretty good, but I really don't see him as being better than Drummond or Barnes (both of whom I would have rather had). Oh well. There were plenty of other teams that passed him up after us.

The thing that will hurt the most on missing on Drummond is that he is a dominant center, and teams that have those have a huge advantage over teams taht don't most other things being equal.

Kyrie with a dominant center (and average shooting guard) is a recipe for titles, where as Kryie with a dominant shooting guard (and average center) makes them not a ton different than what we expect the Nets to be.

The Celtics in 09 are still the only team in the past 30 years to win an NBA title without either the league's best player or a top 3 center on their team.

Finding a dominant 5 is far more important than Chris Grant has seemed to think if he ever wants the Cavs to win a title because while I think Kyrie will be great, I doubt there is a time in his career in which we will definitively say he is the best player in the league. That means we need to find the dominant 5 to pair him with if we want to win a title at some point most likely.

The odds say we are not very likely to be in the 3% (1 team) in the past 30 years that has won a title without either one or the other on their roster at the time.

 

[mAo_mAo]

Drummond is looking like he could be a 20 10 guy in 3 years with a Dwight-like body while Waiters need to at least be Eric Gordon to have an impact and Gordon is not a player that could catapult you to greatness.

 

["Boobie" Gibson]

Pre-draft talking to buddies, I was raving about Drummond. I'm not going to lie about it.

But whatever it is with these advanced metrics, they seem to get it right way more often than not, and Dion graded out real well. I'm willing to give Dion much more time than a lot of you seem to be.

It isn't the most uncommon thing to see rookies come in and struggle. Hell, he may even struggle the entire season (which wouldn't be bad, since we'll be able to have a better pick in '13 draft). I know patients is hard, but it is honestly all we have to fall back on right now. Just gotta wait it out.

Drummond has the potential to be a very good player in this league though, I don't think many can argue that.

 

[Adam]

Time will tell if he can add to his game. His defense is not as good as i expected it to be but luckily its only preseason and teams aren't exploiting those moments when he gets lost. I think the worry of team above the pistons was that he may never improve his weaknesses their is very little evidence to support the fact he will. I think grant rightly or wrongly will have factored in the opinion of scott and the fact we have one young post player without a perimeter game already into his decision, oh and the fact that drummond came over as a space cadet in interviews

 

[Birdy89]

Drummond just turned 19 in August.

I don't think people realized he was a year YOUNGER than the normal college freshman.

His age now is that of a normal college freshman, and he is just starting in the NBA.

People evaluating his one year in college like it was a bible were doing themselves a major diservice not taking his age into account, as usually it is kids like him who dominate being a year older than everyone else.

His game is just scratching the surface right now of what he is capable of, and with his size and athleticism it should be exciting to watch. His body will continue to mature and I expect in a few years he is going to looks like a carbon copy of Dwight Howard.

 

[jay_em]

The thing that will hurt the most on missing on Drummond is that he is a dominant center, and teams that have those have a huge advantage over teams taht don't most other things being equal.

Kyrie with a dominant center (and average shooting guard) is a recipe for titles, where as Kryie with a dominant shooting guard (and average center) makes them not a ton different than what we expect the Nets to be.

The Celtics in 08 are still the only team in the past 30 years to win an NBA title without either the league's best player or a top 3 center on their team.

Finding a dominant 5 is far more important than Chris Grant has seemed to think if he ever wants the Cavs to win a title because while I think Kyrie will be great, I doubt there is a time in his career in which we will definitively say he is the best player in the league. That means we need to find the dominant 5 to pair him with if we want to win a title at some point most likely.

The odds say we are not very likely to be in the 3% (1 team) in the past 30 years that has won a title without either one or the other on their roster at the time.

Couple things:
89,90, 04 Pistons had neither the best player in the league nor a dominant 5. (unless you're calling Ben Wallace the dominant 5 and i'd probably argue that one down, but *shrug*.

11 Mavs had neither the best player in the league nor a dominant 5.

I dont think Kobe was the best player in the league in 09 or 10 and unless you're counting Pau as a 5 they didnt have dominant 5 either.

Finding a dominant 5 is much harder than it seems. Sure NOW it looks like the wrong/questionable pick, but there were as many red flags attached to picking Drummond @4 as there were positives. The lack of dominant 5's should make it much easier for the Cavs to build a championship caliber team without one.

 

[jay_em]

Drummond just turned 19 in August.

I don't think people realized he was a year YOUNGER than the normal college freshman.

His age now is that of a normal college freshman, and he is just starting in the NBA.

People evaluating his one year in college like it was a bible were doing themselves a major diservice not taking his age into account, as usually it is kids like him who dominate being a year older than everyone else.

His game is just scratching the surface right now of what he is capable of, and with his size and athleticism it should be exciting to watch. His body will continue to mature and I expect in a few years he is going to looks like a carbon copy of Dwight Howard.

Problem is one of the reasons Andre went to school early was because he wanted more of a challenge b/c he floated thru HS. Then he gets to UCONN and he doesnt exactly buckle down and embrace the challenge that HE MADE FOR HIMSELF. If he doesnt have the DRIVE to be great then he likely never will. Thats not something that you just turn on and off.