Grading Andre Drummond’s 2019-20 play with the Cavs thus far

Taking a look at Drummond’s offensive play

It was a bit of a rocky start offensively for Drummond, and him being banged up with a left calf strain made it tough for him to kick it into gear.

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Starting off slow was understandable for Dre, though, as he had been traded mid-season by the team that drafted him and of which he played seven-plus seasons with in Detroit.

Even so, Drummond’s scoring average post-trade with Cleveland (17.5 points per game) was nearly identical to his 2019-20 with the Pistons (17.8 points per game), and on the year, he’s on track to having a career-high 17.7 points per outing, per Basketball Reference.

In his time with the Cavs, Drummond has been an impact roller and just as was the case with the Pistons, his screening both on and off-ball has helped create more room for those around him, which I always appreciate.

Drummond’s touch as a roller and on hooks is clearly much-improved in recent years, too, which is encouraging.

As he got more game action with the Cavaliers, his post-up game playing off Love and Sexton, along with Larry Nance Jr. some, also was more of a factor.

While it wasn’t nearly what he was putting up with Detroit per-36 in the offensive rebounding department, Drummond has had still 3.8 offensive boards per-36 with Cleveland, too. It doesn’t get much better than that, and Drummond is again likely going to be the league’s overall and offensive rebounding champ, which is a nice thing to have at your disposal.

One of the key issues with Drummond thus far has been the turnovers, though.

He’s had a turnover rate of 17.8 percent, and while he has a better passer than he was earlier in his career in hitting cutters, he’s hardly Love or Nance-esque and sometimes he tries to do too much in terms of handling it. 3.6 turnovers on average in his eight games with Cleveland to this point is way too many for a 5 man, but I will give him some slack with him being so new still.

Grading Drummond’s 2019-20 offensive play with Cleveland thus far: B

Drummond is not exactly what you want in a starting 5 in today’s space-driven NBA, and him being a complete non-shooter, including the mid-range is not ideal.

On the plus side, though, he is still a load to handle on the offensive glass and as a roller, and when he’s been mostly healthy for Cleveland, he’s done quality work on the low block. The turnovers have been a big problem, though, and with feasibly more experience alongside Love and others, we could see that area cleaned up.

Moreover, a B grade for Drummond offensively seems reasonable, given the solid end results, even as a non-shooter.