Cleveland Cavaliers: Andre Drummond’s contract year begins anew

Nobody impresses and frustrates all at the same time quite like Cleveland Cavaliers center Andre Drummond. That’s especially true in a contract year.

Andre Drummond is awful or amazing, all the time. There’s never any in-between, and this isn’t some disingenuous snippet of sarcasm, that’s truly Drummond in a nutshell. The starting center for the Cleveland Cavaliers is an enigma unlike any other in the NBA.

For example, we can take the Cavs game against the Detroit Pistons, his former team. He got off to a dreadful start from the field before getting it together and hitting several clutch free throws to force overtime and came up with multiple defensive plays in overtime in order to lead his team to victory.

Drummond shook off what is usually his mark of death, an early turnover, and eventually pulled himself together to the point that by his force of will and mental determination he got his team a win. By the time all was said and done, he had a borderline comical stat line that (for better or worse) could be assembled by no other center in the league: 23 points on 7-of-21 shooting, 0-of-2 from 3-point range, 9-of-14 from the free throw line, 15 rebounds, five assists, four steals, three blocks and four turnovers in 44 minutes.

His stat line on the season through three games is equally preposterous. He’s averaging 20.3 points on 19.0 field goal attempts, shooting 43.9 percent from the floor. Add 14.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.7 blocks, and oh yeah, 3.3 turnovers per game.

Andre Drummond has a true shooting percentage of 47.0 and a turnover rate of 11.5 percent with a massive usage rate of 31.8 percent, but somehow he remains a significant plus on the floor. In fact, the Cleveland Cavaliers have a +13.6 net rating when he’s on the floor and are 3-0 thanks in no small part to his contributions.

The marks against Drummond are unmistakable and well-known by now. He tries to do too much and seems oblivious to his own fairly evident limitations when if he would simply play within himself he could be among the league’s best centers (at what he does, at least).

A make or break season for Andre Drummond and the Cleveland Cavaliers

This season, in particular, he’s going to have to guard against doing too much like his instincts will push him toward. He will be a free agent in the offseason and in the past, he’s fallen prey to the idea that he needs to win games by himself, earn the whole contract all at once, do everything all on his own.

While it’s early, Drummond has a promising young core around him with the Cleveland Cavaliers with guys like Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, and he can either be a massive plus for his teammates if he’s able to focus himself on the things he does well as a playmaker, scorer and defender, or he can inadvertently short-circuit his own best interests by pushing the issue to the point where he can’t possibly succeed.

The book is out on Andre Drummond, the league knows who and what he is, and he needs to follow suit himself and maximize the ways he can provide his overwhelming impact. A big payday could depend upon it, as could a surprise playoff run for his Cavs.