Cavs: Andre Drummond won’t be at upcoming run, but him being ‘pretty engaged’ is good to know

The Cleveland Cavaliers have started their few weeks of upcoming workouts with individual work first, but Andre Drummond is a notable absence.

The Cleveland Cavaliers started their three weeks of upcoming workouts/minicamp-type run this week, and that’s started with individual work.

That has been and will be via still socially-distanced/novel coronavirus-guideline work, and individual sessions have been conducted for some time for Cleveland, who was not a team invited to Orlando for the 2019-20 season’s restart.

While I originally thought the Cavs in-market bubble downtown was being used for this workout format already, that portion, which will be team workout run, will begin next Monday, September, 21 and could run through Oct. 6, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

For the Cavaliers, I’d expect the team workout run, in particular, to be especially meaningful for youngsters such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and Cedi Osman, for example. The same goes for Dylan Windler, who did not appear for Cleveland at all in 2019-20 due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, but is reportedly a participant.

With how the Cavs have not played in game action since March 10, due to the then-COVID-19-induced hiatus and then ultimately the end of their season, these voluntary workouts should help in regards to player development. And for the young players, more so.

It’s also a positive that Kevin Love, from a leadership/team chemistry perspective, as Fedor alluded to as well, is attending with participation voluntary. Tristan Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova, who are both expiring, are not in/nor going to be in attendance for these, per Fedor, but that is understandable, really.

Granted, it is more notable that Andre Drummond, who arrived as a trade deadline addition via deal with the Detroit Pistons and only appeared in eight games thus far, won’t be, either, though.

That said, to me, Drummond, who won’t be attending due to a personal matter, per Fedor, has been “pretty engaged” throughout the offseason, per a Fedor/Cleveland.com source. That’s been mostly via virtual meetings, etc.

Drummond won’t be at these workouts, but as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, it’s good to know he’s been “pretty engaged,” as was mentioned.

Drummond hasn’t played much with the Cavaliers, yet, and only games to this point, in fact. Sure, it isn’t ideal that Dre isn’t/won’t be at these workouts/in-market team workouts, but it’s not something fans should much into.

For a bit more in regards to that involving Drummond, who is reportedly highly likely to pick up his $28.8 million player option for next season, via Fedor, and this is reassuring from my perspective after Fedor noted Drummond would be attending if able.

"“Plus, according to sources, Drummond has been staying in touch with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and members of the front office. He’s participated in team Zoom calls. He was in town recently for a two-week gathering that the Cavs used as a quasi-tune-up for the min-bubble that couldn’t consist of team activities and instead focused on voluntary 1-on-0 workouts.”"

Fedor would then stress more about how the center has seemingly been still dialed-in for the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is encouraging.

"“He’s been pretty engaged in everything,” a source said. “It’s not like he’s gone dark. He wanted to be there. It’s nothing malicious. It’s not a sign or anything like that. It’s not going to cause a rift.”"

As Fedor then hit on, it would be meaningful for Drummond to be in attendance, from a chemistry standpoint and be able to participate in hour 5-on-5 team run sessions. But it’s good to again know that Dre has still seemingly been fairly locked-in.

With next season for the Wine and Gold in mind, assuming Drummond picks up his option, the Cavs should know mostly what they’ll be able to get in most instances from Dre on the inside as a formidable low-post threat, intelligent interior rotator and elite rebounder. For further context, Drummond again led the NBA with 15.2 boards per contest in 2019-20.

Drummond has improved in the low-post in recent seasons and is fresh off having a career-best 17.7 points per outing during this now-past campaign, too. And he was the only player in the Association in 2019-20 that placed in the top 10 in steals and blocks per contest with 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per outing.

We’ll have to see if Drummond can potentially be a long-term piece, though, and given him not being a shooter/nor too switchable defensively if needed at times, that’s unclear.

Perhaps he can be, however, with Dre at least being a proven commodity on the inside and on the glass.

In any case, it is nice to know that while Dre is not set to participate in these upcoming workouts/team-bonding activities, his dynamic with the squad seems to be in a good place.