Andre Drummond: Has He Reached Elite Status?

Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond is certainly solidifying himself as one of the best centers in the NBA, but has he already reached elite status?

Andre Drummond has been on the rise since he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons during the 2012 NBA Draft. It was identified through the first six games of the season that Drummond was making a leap and becoming a superstar, and he still is. But has he leaped all the way up into the elite tier of NBA players?

It depends on one’s definition of elite. According to Dictionary.com, elite means “the choice or best of anything considered collectively as a group or class of persons”. Does Drummond fit into the category? Again, it depends.

There is not always a fine line of determining if a player is elite. Look at the MLB Hall of Fame voting, for example. There are 440 people that cast a vote for who they think should be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and former MLB players need 330 votes to be elected. That is the MLB’s definition of elite, and determines who the best of the best are in the game of baseball.

Related Story: 25 Best Players To Play For The Detroit Pistons

Public Perception

Determining if a player is elite is very subjective. To get the whole perspective, I took to Twitter to ask what the public perception is of Drummond and if he is elite or not. After hearing from Pistons fans, daily fantasy sports players and NBA fans, it isn’t a unanimous opinion one way or the other.

President of Detroit Pistons Nation Aaron Johnson believes that Drummond is not quite there yet, and cites Wednesday night’s 13-point, five-rebound performance that was riddled with foul troubles as a reason why.

Skeeter Robinson co-hosts a fantasy sports talk show on ESPN Radio in Peoria, Ill. He believes that from a daily fantasy sports perspective that Drummond is not elite. In fact, the numbers would back him up since Drummond has produced points above his salary only 13 times in 36 games this season.

One Pistons fan thought I was joking. Another provides insight on what Drummond has done well and areas of his game that he needs to improve.

Pistons fan Jared Petzold needed three separate tweets to break down his opinions on Drummond’s game and how he can obtain elite status for years to come.

Minnesota Timberwolves fan Brian Garanich believes that Drummond is not elite due to his atrocious free-throw shooting.

This group of tweets reflects the public’s perception of Drummond’s status on whether or not he is elite. It’s all over the place, but it’s also all accurate because this is a subjective matter.

Statistical Analysis

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Some of the things Drummond is doing this season has not been matched before, or would qualify him for elite status. He became the quickest Piston to reach 30 double-doubles with his performance on Monday night. Drummond was able to do it in 35 games.

He also joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain as the only three players to record three 20-20 games in their first six games of the season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Drummond, 22, has established himself as the league’s best rebounder this season. He is leading every statistical rebounding category. He has 199 offensive rebounds, 367 defensive rebounds, 566 total rebounds and is averaging 15.7 rebounds per game. He also led the NBA in offensive rebounding in each of his last two seasons.

Drummond is second to Brooklyn Nets’ center Brook Lopez in points per game at the center position. Lopez is averaging 19.9 points per game, while Drummond is scoring 17.9 points per game. Petzold (previous tweet) has the same evaluation that I do of Drummond’s offensive game. He has developed a nice post hook, but hasn’t ironed down the consistency on it.

The area where Drummond excels is on lob passes and converting offensive rebounds into second chance points.

Yes, Drummond’s free-throw struggles are tough to watch. But in the grand scheme of things, one of the best centers to ever play the game only shot 52.7 percent from the free-throw line in his career. That player is Shaquille O’Neal, by the way.

When team’s play “Bang-A-Drum,” as Fox Sports’ Fred Katz named it, it becomes tough to watch the entire game. Nobody wants to watch a game when a player is being intentionally fouled as soon as their team enters the bonus for the quarter. It not only draws the game out longer than it needs to be, but it also kills the excitement that the game naturally generates.

However, Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant hit the nail on the head when he said that players need to just “work on (their) f—ing free-throws”, according to ESPN.com’s Royce Young.

There’s also an analytical approach to determine if Drummond should be considered elite. By looking at win shares through three years and career totals, Basketball Reference generates similarity scores to several NBA greats and active players. Similarity scores are explained in full detail here, but in essence are comparing players’ careers that have similar quality and shape.

Through three years, Drummond’s best similarity score match is with 2015 NBA Hall of Fame inductee Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo’s similarity score is a 91.0 and his most win shares in a season is 9.4 compared to Drummond’s 9.9.

Drummond is also on par with 2014 NBA Hall of Fame inductee Alonzo Mourning. Mourning’s similarity score was an 87.8, which is ninth on the list. Like Mutombo, his best win shares is 9.4. But Mourning’s worst win shares was 6.3 compared to Drummond’s 4.5.

When stacking up Drummond’s similarity scores with active players, there may be a few surprises to who he’s most comparable to. Jonas Valanciunas draws the highest similarity score of 84.4. Rising center Nikola Vucevic has a similarity score of 67.2. DeMarcus Cousins‘ similarity score is 62.9.

Drummond certainly appears to be heading down an elite track when comparing his similarity scores to two Hall of Fame centers. Even when comparing to active NBA players, Drummond has a strong similarity to the best players at his position.

Whether Drummond is an elite player is up for anyone’s determination. If you put Cousins at power forward, it’s not a stretch to say that Drummond is the best center in the NBA this season. That certainly puts him in an elite category by position. It may be up for debate if he is a top five or top 10 player in the NBA overall, however.