Andre Drummond and the Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t had much time together.
Andre Drummond and the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t appear destined for a long-term relationship. Drummond, following his acquisition via trade by the Cavs near the 2020 deadline, played only eight games with them.
That was due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and then the Cavaliers not being an Orlando bubble team. So, no that wasn’t an ample sample size to properly evaluate Drummond’s fit alongside pieces such as Kevin Love and Collin Sexton, among others.
But it does still seem as though Drummond will eventually pick up his $28.7 million player option for next season and be with the Cavs. That’s been reportedly highly likely for quite some time now.
Nonetheless, it does not seem as if the former longtime Detroit Piston will be with the Cavaliers for the long haul. Per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, while there was previously “mutual interest” in a potential contract extension, Drummond/his representation and the Cavs are “far apart in those preliminary discussions.”
Fedor also said how if the Cavs were to look to trade Drummond at some point, their “best chance” at doing so would be near the deadline. “Multiple sources” of his noted that.
Furthermore, according to a report from Forbes‘ Evan Dammarell on Wednesday, of which made it appear Drummond could very well moved down the road, too, Dammarell hit on how the Boston Celtics, [LA] Clippers and San Antonio Spurs would be logical suitors.
Plus, Dammarell, said that per sources, the offseason situation with Dre has been bumpy and that the “Drummond situation in Cleveland is only going to become even more uncomfortable this offseason.”
It’s “already been uncomfortable at times,” too, is what Dammarell said. Per him, the Celtics “are monitoring” the Drummond situation as well.
Dammarell still touched on how it appears Drummond should be a Cav next season, anyhow, and that an extension still could be an option at some point, but that doesn’t seem likely. For more on reported details/what this Drummond conversation means, you can view those here.
With all that being said, Drummond seemed to clear that air, to some extent, in a recent interview with Fedor, and looking at it from a Cavs fan’s perspective, there some pluses and minuses. Drummond and Fedor discussed his participation/his spin off of #GotMilkChallenge, involving Oreo trick shots, Drummond’s training/workout regimen, what he’s been working on, teammates/the Cavs, etc.
So what jumped out from that interview?
We’ll highlight the good and bad, from a Cavs fan’s perspective.
We’ll start with the good first.
The good from this interview, from a Cavs fan’s perspective
The first of three quotes that stood out to me from this interview were Drummond being able to get healthy and work on his basketball-related activities/training near his home in the Miami area. The first quote here in the basketball-related realm, when Fedor asked about how he’s been able to do that, seemingly given the time away/COVID-19 concerns, was in relation to that.
"“Have you been able to do the typical basketball-related workouts?” “For me, my trainer that I’ve worked out with for a long time, he just opened up his own facility, so I can go in there by myself, get shots up and work out as hard as physically possible. Working on my body and game. I’m in pretty good shape right now.”"
It’s nice to know that Drummond’s been able to get consistent workouts in and from a basketball standpoint, stay healthy/be in game shape seemingly, and be able to have the needed access. That’s individually in this case, though Drummond hit touch on coming to Cleveland a bit for some workouts before the Cavs voluntary in-market bubble team workouts, which he missed due to a personal matter.
From there, the next set of quotes that we’ll highlight here came from Drummond seeming to be staying in touch with his teammates and get some time with Kevin Porter Jr. when Porter stayed with Dre. When Drummond was in Cleveland, he got in some team-building stuff with the group, too, which was invaluable it seemed.
From a team chemistry perspective, this was refreshing to read about, too, and with how he’s been in contact/seen the guys, such as Darius Garland, mostly, and has been around Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr. and Collin Sexton.
"“Everyone on the roster is scattered across the country, so is there someone that you’ve stayed in closest contact with during this offseason?” “Yeah. Definitely Darius Garland for sure is someone I have spent a lot of time with over these months. Larry, Kevin and I’ve seen Collin a few times. Kevin Porter has come down to work with me. Earlier in like June, he came and stayed with me for a week to work out. Other than that, I’ve talked to everybody fairly often. We’re all on a group chat and we all check in on each other.”"
It was good to see that Drummond believes Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is an “awesome leader,” too, when asked about him by Fedor. But lastly, in terms of the good in relation to this interview, in the general sense, Drummond seems to be a fan of how his time, albeit short, with the Cavaliers has been to this point.
"“It was brief, but what did you make of your time with the Cavs?” “I had a lot of fun with those guys. Being on the same court with someone like Kevin Love, someone I’ve known my whole career. Larry has done a really good job of making sure I got acclimated when I got to town. I love playing with Collin (Sexton). DG (Darius Garland) is one of my favorite teammates so far. Kevin Porter Jr. is someone I’m looking forward to working with and pushing to get to that point where he becomes the star that he is. That’s just a small list of guys. I can through with Delly (Matthew Dellavedova), Tristan (Thompson), and I can go through everybody one by one but that’s not why we’re here. I love my teammates. Love it in Cleveland. Staff is great. They did a really good job of making sure I was comfortable when I got in.”"
Overall, it’s encouraging to find out that Drummond seems to be engaged with his teammates and it’d appear Bickerstaff and company. Now, there was a few quotes that stood out in a bad way, too, though.
We’ll get more into those next.
The bad from this interview, from a Cavs fan’s perspective
Moving on to the bad/concerning parts of this interview, to me, it’s mostly how Drummond seems to be looking to expand his game coming into this next season.
Now, given it’s been an extended offseason period, and with how there seems to be a great possibility that it’s going to be a contract year for him, assuming he does at some point opt in, I can understand that. Although in this interview, he didn’t say anything definitively, but I’d still expect Drummond to eventually pick up his player option for next season, with how it’s been reportedly highly likely he will.
Circling back, it seems as if Drummond is trying to become more in the realm of a spacing big that is looking to be in the mold of a key big playmaker, which, while he’s shown glimpses of playmaking potential with Detroit, he’s consistently been a high turnover player. And his capabilities in that realm are not close to that of Kevin Love or Larry Nance Jr., for instance, which is concerning.
But Drummond looking to expand his game out to space the floor, too, is a stretch as well. Albeit he did have a career-best 17.7 points per game in 2019-20, to go with leading the league in rebounding with 15.2 per game, and he had 1.9 steals and 1.6 blocks per contest.
But again, Drummond, who shot 57.5 percent from the foul line last season, and is not a realistic shooting threat, really, away from the paint, working on triples/expanding his game away from a low-post/roller/screener for the Cavs isn’t great.
This next quote about him being in the top echelon of bigs, per Fedor, when asked about the big position, wasn’t outstanding to read about.
"“I’m sure you’ve heard the chatter, right? The value of the big man has dropped significantly. How, if at all, does that play into your future contract decision?” “For me, I’ve heard that for so long throughout my career. I’ve still found a way to stay relevant and stay on top. In terms of the big man position dying, I don’t think that’s a real thing. I think it’s more just, you know, people not knowing basketball or paying attention to what is going on. The big man is coming back. You look at the perennial bigs, we’ve got (Nikola) Jokic, Joel Embiid, myself, (Kristaps) Porzingis, (Jusuf) Nurkic, go down the list of bigs that are playing really, really well or holding their own at the position. The do-a-little-of-everything style is the new evolution of the big man on the court.”"
I get where Drummond is coming from here, and bigs still do matter in impacting games, to an extent. I’m not going to just dismiss them, and they can things easier for guards/wings throughout contests.
Is Dre really putting himself in the same mold of players like Nikola Jokic, Kristaps Porzingis and Joel Embiid, though? I’m sorry, but eight years into his career, it’s really, really, really difficult to foresee him ever becoming close to as impactful of a big as they are.
I know the dude’s a fine player on the interior, but he thinks he’s in that realm of a player and can be a “do-a-little-of-everything” big? Come on, man.
The Cavs have to be heated just reading that. I don’t want Drummond shooting triples and trying to playmake a bunch in games, assuming he’s back, at least for a good chunk of next season.
Moreover, these two quotes from Drummond to Fedor about his next step/changes to his game, don’t excite me.
"“What are those changes?” “You just have to see, man. I’m not one of the guys that boasts and brags about my game. I just let it speak for itself. It’s pretty much the same thing I’ve been doing lately — ball handling, shooting the 3 and being more consistent with that, finishing around the rim, being able to make the right plays, being able to pass the ball when I get cut off or double-teamed, pass it to the corner or the wing, working on my IQ, keeping my head up when I dribble and all the other essential things that need to be done as a big man now to stay on the court.” “Were those changes prompted by the Cavs or did you decide that on your own?” “No, I mean I’m at a point in my career where I’m able to understand my own game. Dribbling the ball and shooting, but still maintaining what I’m getting paid to do, which is rebounding, defending and blocking shots.”"
Again, I get Drummond’s thought process here, but it’s eight years in. And while he’s made strides as a free throw shooter, and I’m not discounting those, in recent seasons, his best season from the charity stripe, even, is a 60.5 percent hit rate.
On shots 10-16 feet out in his career thus far, on a volume of only 3.7 percent, for context, he’s had a hit rate of 27.9 percent. The touch simply hasn’t been there, and if we’re talking three-point looks? There’s been little-to-nothing of a sample size, but the hit rate is 14.6 percent.
Maybe Drummond does eventually hit the occasional spot-ups down the road to some regularity? Maybe? But that’s very, very hard for me to believe that’ll be the case next season/with the Cavs, to a decent chunk of the year at least.
And Drummond can get his own off-the-bounce a bit when he can play bully ball against less physical bigs. I’d rather him not get too carried away, though, and force that too much.
Alright, so that was a lot to unpack there. Albeit this interview had a bunch to it, given the Drummond/potential trade talk, more so for down the road it seems.
There were some positives, but also some concerning quotes to me as a Cavs fan. It cleared the air to some degree, though.