Detroit Pistons: 2018-19 player grades for Andre Drummond
By Amaar Burton
Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond reached more individual milestones in 2018-19 and helped the team make it back to the playoffs.
The seventh season of Andre Drummond‘s NBA career had plenty of bright spots, but ended with an abrupt thud on Monday night when his Detroit Pistons were swept out of the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Despite the disappointing (some would say disastrous) finish, Drummond put together arguably his best pro season in 2018-19.
The 25-year-old center averaged a career-high 17.3 points per game in the regular season and led the NBA in rebounding for the third time in four years, pulling down 15.6 boards per game. He set a career-high in steals with 1.7 takeaways per game, which ranked eighth overall in the league and first among centers. He also ranked eighth in the league in blocks with 1.7 rejections per game.
Expectations were high for Drummond and the Pistons going into this season.
Individually, there was no reason to believe he would not continue his reign as one of the NBA’s best at his position.
Detroit Pistons: Is Andre Drummond the NBA's best 'true' center? https://t.co/3Wrpktd8P0 -- @Amaar_206 via @HoopsHabit
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As a team, the Pistons — led by the highly talented (and highly paid) frontcourt pairing of Drummond and Blake Griffin — were believed to be contenders for a top-four playoff seed in the new-look Eastern Conference by some. (LeBron James out, Kawhi Leonard in, Dwyane Wade saying goodbye, Giannis Antetokounmpo saying hello). If nothing else, Detroit was predicted to at least return to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
To those ends, Drummond lived up to expectations.
He either improved or maintained his individual stats and status, and Detroit slid into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the East. With Griffin battling a knee injury, however, the Pistons simply didn’t have the horsepower to keep up with Milwaukee, the league’s No. 1 overall seed. Drummond himself did not play well in that series, sending his loudest critics into a frenzy.
What grade does Andre Drummond deserve for the season?