Detroit Pistons: 2017-18 NBA season preview

Storyline 1: How good is Andre Drummond really?

A lot went wrong for the Pistons last season. In many ways, they resembled the 2015-16 Washington Wizards, another up-and-coming team that took a step back due to injuries and chemistry issues.

Those Wizards had another problem, though: John Wall, their best player, stagnated in his development. The team got healthier and more cohesive in 2016-17, but it was Wall’s breakout that sparked their delayed ascension.

Detroit needs better health. It needs better chemistry. More than anything, though, it needs Drummond to start becoming the game-changing force that he looked like a lock to be as recently as two years ago.

It still is early. He’s 24, and is already a major difference-maker. He is arguably the league’s best rebounder, and is a better defender than his declining block rate suggests. That combination makes him an extremely valuable player, easily the best on the Pistons.

But Drummond was supposed to be Dwight Howard-ian. A super athlete with ridiculous strength. A terrifying force out of the pick-and-roll and a brute bully in the post. The league’s most dominant interior defender.

It is unclear to what extent his league-worst free throw shooting is holding him back, but it is clearly a factor. Five years in, he is shooting 38.1 percent from the line. More damning than the anemic 0.76 points per possession his free throw trips produce is how they limit his offensive assertiveness, as well as his ability to stay on the floor defensively.  That he needs to improve significantly simply to be Howard-ian says a lot.

Nothing will determine this franchise’s fate more, this season and beyond, than the extent to which Drummond can realize his ceiling.