Detroit Pistons: 2018-19 player grades for Andre Drummond

Weaknesses

Drummond’s biggest flaw resurfaced in the playoffs — that would be his propensity to lose focus and make bad decisions when his emotions get the best of him.

In Game 1 against Milwaukee, in the second half of an eventual blowout, Drummond shoved Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and was ejected. In Game 3, Drummond earned a technical foul when he got into an altercation with Bucks guard Sterling Brown.

He finished the regular season tied for fifth in the league in technical fouls with 14.

Another notable display of that flaw happened early in the regular season, during an October renewal of Drummond’s personal rivalry with Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. In the fourth quarter of a close game in which Embiid was, frankly, lighting up Drummond and the Pistons, Drummond’s frustration boiled over and earned him an ejection.

Embiid’s claim that he owns “a lot of real estate in (Drummond’s) head” seemed accurate.

Offensively, Drummond has shown questionable decision-making and misses a lot of shots that a 6’11”, 280-pound big man should make. His 53.3 field goal percentage was a slight improvement from last season, but still low for someone with his size and skill.

In that aforementioned Sixers game, Drummond shot 6-for-20 from the field. In another game against Philly in December, he shot 7-for-19. He went 2-for-12 in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in January, and 6-for-17 in a loss to the Utah Jazz that same month.

Drummond tends to get in foul trouble. He was second in the league in total fouls in the regular season with 272. Depending on who you ask, however, that may not be a flaw with Drummond and more of an indictment of how referees treat him.

The playoffs were a struggle for Drummond, who was somewhere between subpar and a mess.

With Griffin missing the first two games of the Bucks series due to a knee injury and available but limited in the last two, Drummond was called upon to step up. His numbers, however, went down.

Drummond’s 13.0 rebounds per game ranks No. 1 among all players in these playoffs, but he averaged just 14.3 points a night on 44.4 percent shooting from the field and 42.9 percent at the line.

There have been a lot of Pistons fans who are highly critical of Drummond over the years, and they had a lot of meat on their plate this postseason. He was booed during Detroit’s home games and bashed on social media, not just for lack of production but also for a perceived lack of effort.

For what it’s worth, Drummond and some of his supporters contend that his problem is actually that he tries too hard and gets erratic. Either way, he needs to play better in the playoffs if Detroit is ever going to become a real contender for a conference title.