NBA Rookie Draft Ranking and Fantasy Outlook: Andre Drummond
Jul 2, 2012 Center Updates
The Detroit Pistons selected PF/C Andre Drummond with the ninth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Drummond’s career stats at Connecticut:
34 Games, 10.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, .8 steals, 53.8 FG%, 29.5 FT%
Fantasy Advice: The Pistons got really lucky when 18 year old Andre Drummond fell all the way to the ninth pick in the 2012 draft. He’s a huge kid at 6’11, 280 pounds, but he checks in at only 7% body fat. He’s got a monstrous 7’6 wingspan. He’s going to be a defensive force paired with the talented Greg Monroe to form a pretty strong Piston frontcourt.
While Drummond clearly has the skills and physical attributes, the one concern that scouts seem to have is about his mental toughness and motivation, but remember he’s still just 18 years old. Many critics said the same thing about DeMarcus Cousins and look how he turned out.
One thing that could really hold Drummond back is that 29.5 FT%. That’s just incredibly bad, but there’s no reason to think that he can’t at least get it up toward 50%. If he does develop an offensive game, this will have to be the first thing that he improves or opponents will simply resort to hacking him and killing your free throw percentage category.
Fantasy owners will seek out Drummond for his shotblocking and rebounding ability. He’s clearly a bit of an offensive project, so don’t expect that part of his game to help your fantasy squad for a few years. Drummond probably won’t contribute enough across the board to make him anything more than a late round flier, however keeper league owners should definitely try and find him a spot somewhere on their bench or reserve list since big men sometimes a take a year or two to find their place.