Andre Drummond and Detroit Double Down on the Low Post

Andre Drummond arrived in Detroit four years ago as a seven-foot-tall behemoth who could catch lobs in the rafters and run the floor like a guard, but the Pistons quickly realized that their new center would need to find other ways to make an impact when the game slowed down. The ninth overall pick in the 2012 draft, Drummond could no longer simply rely on being bigger and stronger than his opponents. So his coaches in Detroit decided to work on his low-post game, long a staple of the NBA big man with little range.

This kick-started a process that has now spanned three different coaching staffs and continues to this day, despite a league-wide shift in how Drummond's position is played. The goal? Transform the Pistons center into a something like prime Dwight Howard, a perfect blend of rim protection, modern pick-and-roll rim-running, and the ability to batter opposing centers down low. The risk? Turning Drummond into an anachronism—an on-the-blocks also-ran in an era where low-post offense for its own sake is dismissed as inefficient, and big men increasingly attack from the elbows and the perimeter.

For Detroit, the payoff is potentially huge: if Drummond can become go-to option, the sort of low-post threat who commands double-teams and creates offensive gravity, both he and his teammates will benefit. But the road has been, and continues to be, a long one.

It started at ground zero, for even Drummond saw himself as a perimeter player coming out of college in 2012. He shot just 32 percent in the post during his lone season at the University of Connecticut, per DraftExpress's scouting report, which also listed deficiencies in his ability to establish position, footwork, counter moves, and off-hand finishing. Detroit's coaches saw the potential in his size and soft touch, but otherwise there was little to work with.

"His post game had to be built from scratch, which was fine, because we didn't have any bad habits to break," Roy Rogers, an assistant coach with the Pistons during Drummond's rookie season, told VICE Sports. "We just had to start building a foundation."

Rogers' initial tasks were as basic as getting Drummond comfortable with the proper hook-shot motion—he was releasing from his shoulder instead of fully extending his arm. "He had never shot that particular shot before, so he was a little resistant when we first started working on it," Rogers said. Drummond came off the bench in 50 of his 60 games in 2012-13, and was granted playing time if he defended and rebounded, which he could then use for in-game reps down low.

"When you work with a guy, you have to have patience and know that the improvement is not going to happen right away, it's going to be incrementally," Brendan Malone, an assistant coach with the Pistons, said after a recent shootaround. "Having him and the coach realize that this is a process, and that you had to be patient with the process [was the most difficult thing]."

After Stan Van Gundy took over as head coach and president of basketball operations in Detroit prior to the 2014-15 season, he called Malone, who was at Orlando Summer League, and asked him to fly out to Los Angeles and work with Drummond. The new coaching staff saw what the previous one had: Drummond's physique and work ethic made the individual attention worthwhile. Even now, Malone can recite the routine he and Drummond executed, day after day.

Get the big man into the middle of the lane using crab dribbles. Two dribbles, jump hook. One dribble, jump hook. Counter moves. One dribble, drop step. Two dribbles, drop step. And do it all on both blocks.

"We did that everyday to develop habits," Malone said. "The way you learn skills is through repetition, and that that's what we did. We had the same routine, and we did that throughout the entire season. Trying to get him to catch it, chest it, and locate the defense before he made his move."

Drummond wasn't the first promising center Malone has worked with: he was an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic during Howard's ascent to stardom.

"I would give the edge on offense to Dwight," Malone said, looking back on how Howard looked at this stage of Drummond's career. "But the way Andre is progressing, I think he'll eventually catch up to him."

Slowly but surely, Drummond is progressing. Each summer, he has added new moves to his practice repertoire—including a sweeping hook, counters, and up-and-unders—all of which are starting to appear in games. The task of developing Drummond's post game now belongs to Malik Allen, who worked the blocks for 12 years in the NBA before becoming an assistant coach with Detroit. Drummond has also looked for outside assistance, recruiting NBA legend George Gervin to help out with his footwork, which he says has been the most difficult part of the process.

It is still a process. Last season, 27.5 percent of Drummond's offense plays ended in a post-up, with an output of 0.73 points per play. That number fell in the bottom quarter of the league, according to NBA.com's play-type statistics. This year, post-ups account for 31.8 percent of his offense, with roughly the same scoring rate. If Drummond, still just 23 years old, is going to be a go-to scorer on the blocks, his output has to improve. At this point, Drummond says, he'd rate his post game a "six or seven."

"Patience in the post," Malone said when asked what Drummond still needs improvement on. "Demand the ball, and get good post position. Through repetition he'll get that."

As Drummond continues perfecting his low-post arsenal, players of similar stature—such as Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Kristaps Porzingis, to name a few—are perfecting their ball skills and jumpers. It's no secret, even to Drummond's head coach, that the game is changing.

"Your go-to scorers offensively now are perimeter guys, and big guys are pick-and-roll guys," Van Gundy said prior to Detroit's loss at New York last month. "It's a little easier to limit those guys in terms of double teams and things like that. The rule changes of years ago I think really changed the role of the center in terms of being that go-to guy.

"People tend to forget, I've heard criticisms of today's centers, but when there was Patrick [Ewing], Hakeem [Olajuwon], David Robinson and Shaq[uille O'Neal] and those guys … you still had the rules where you had to be lifted above the free throw line and everything else, and your only choices were to come all the way down on a hard double or stay home. Now those guys are facing crowded floors and everything else. It's just a little easier to limit those guys than it is the perimeter guys."

Van Gundy does not expect Drummond to become the next Ewing or Shaq. His focus is on defense and energy in the pick-and-roll, where Drummond can flourish as every bit a modern-day center as his peers. Still, Malone believes evolving Drummond's post-up game can become very valuable, once defenders are threatened enough by it to collapse and open up three-point looks for the Pistons, who rank last in percentage of points from behind the arc.

Currently, Detroit is 18th in the league on offense, which adds incentive for finding another reliable scoring option, especially with starting point guard Reggie Jackson working his way back from injury. But wherever his low-post game peaks, Drummond will continue to make an impact on the boards, pick-and-roll and on defense. His recently inked five-year max deal with the Pistons means he's their guy, and they're his team, and if these summers spent toiling in the paint don't make him a generational player, he'll be just fine.

"I'm not here to impress the media, I'm here to win basketball games," Drummond said. "Whatever anybody has to say about me, I can't control that. All I know is, as long as we're putting wins on the board that's all that matters."

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