A look back at the fantastic 2017-18 season of Andre Drummond.

Follow along with any and all stats on Basketball-Reference. Any stats not pulled directly from there will be otherwise noted.

Per-Game Stats: 15 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.6 blocks. Shooting 52.9% from the field, 3pt N/A, 60.5% from the line, all in 33.7 minutes of work per game.

Shot-chart

The Good

The entire narrative of Drummond having a bad year last year was overstated, but he certainly was disappointing. This year was an important one for him to bounce back, and boy did he. Drummond ended up being THE bright spot throughout the season for the Pistons, making his second All-Star game and improving in nearly every aspect of his game.

First off, let's talk about the free throws, because ... THE FREE THROWS. After shooting a measly 38.6% from the line last year, Drummond shot an impressive (at least for him) 60.5% from the charity stripe this season. Clearly, he's gotten over whatever mental hurdles he had in previous seasons and found a form that works for him. Other than a couple of specific games, he looked calm and confident from the line this season. Him free throw improvement was one of the best storylines of the season for the Pistons; I cannot think of a point where I wasn't totally giddy to see Drummond step to the line and confidently knock down free throws.

Beyond the free-throw line, Drummond improved nearly every aspect of his game from when he first became the Pistons true center-piece three years ago. First off, Drummond once again had a career-best rebounding season by both counting and advanced stats. His 16 rebounds per game led the NBA and were the most since Dennis Rodman in the 96-97 season. The only upset was that Drummond did not claim the rebounding percentage title this season after winning it the last two years. DeAndre Jordan edged out Drummond in the category by collecting 26.5% of all misses to Drummond's 26.2%. This is a small thing though as Drummond has only held a slight edge on Jordan the past two years, Jordan and Drummond are two of the greatest rebounders to ever live, as both players became the first to eclipse the 26% mark for a season since Rodman in the 95-96 season.

Drummond also continued to build on his defensive abilities. In the past, Drummond has shown flashes of being a terrifying combination of rim protection inside and quick feet and hands on the outside but has never really been consistent. He is not all the way there, but Drummond made a real step this season and even if he wasn't defensive player of the year caliber, he was very good. Gone are the helpless leaps for shots he has no chance at, replaced by crisp rotations where Drummond stuffs good players at the rim.

Even if the overall defensive scheme is dialed back a bit, the new coach would do well to allow Drummond to continue to play as aggressively on defense as Stan Van Gundy did this season. Drummond has always shown an ability to hound ball-handlers far from the hoop, but Van Gundy fully unleashed him this season. There are times where it causes break-downs behind him when a gamble wouldn't pay off and also left the Pistons vulnerable to offensive rebounds behind him. But Drummond made so many plays that it was a net positive. Drummond finished the season averaging 1.6 steals per game and his 114 total on the season was good for 20th in the NBA, the only center in the top 20. Anthony Davis was the only other player in the top 20 who played any significant time at center. Drummond finished the season 9th in the NBA in deflections per game, no other center is even close. On top of all that, being out attacking ball-handlers seems to help keep Drummond engaged and focused while on the court.

Drummond's 1.6 blocks per game this season was a near career best as well and his 127 total blocks on the season were good for 5th in the NBA. Drummond and Anthony Davis are the only two players to appear in the top 20 for both steals and blocks. Drummond's 1.6 blocks per game ranked 6th in the NBA and he ranked 12th in the NBA in block percentage by blocking 4.3% of all shots taken while he was on the floor.

Despite being flawed stats, Drummond led the NBA in defensive win shares, defensive rating, and Defensive Box Score Plus/Minus. All in all, Drummond still has work to do, but he started to really come into his own as a defensive force this season and it is a credit to both him and the coaching staff.

On the offensive end, Drummond was a much more complete player this season as well. His passing was a revelation to much of the NBA as he smashed his previous career best with three assists per game. Putting the ball in Drummond's hands and allowing him to operate as a facilitator from the elbows was an incredibly fun wrinkle for the Pistons until Avery Bradley forgot how to score. The arrival of Blake Griffin threw the entire offense into limbo, but it will be important for the new coaching staff to not allow Drummond to fall back into a passive offensive role.

Drummond added all of the new stuff to his game, largely, without losing any of the potency he has shown in other areas. He remains one of the NBA's most prolific and best screen-setters, finishing 3rd in the NBA in screen assists per game. He still terrifies offenses when he rolls to the rim and dominates the offensive glass.

All in all, it may not have always been in ways that were super flashy but this was the breakout season for Drummond we had hoped for last year. There is also some irony to the fact that he only made the all-star team due to injuries when he was far more deserving this year than his previous selection. A lot of people focused heavily on the 16 rebounds, just as they do with other counting stats, but the reality is that Drummond's rebounding has always been historically great. The thing that was impressive about this season was everything else. Drummond may or may not get good enough to be the best player on a champion, you can argue where exactly he sits in the league hierarchy, but the Pistons have a 24-year-old all-star who was more than fully deserving of that honor. Andre Drummond is for real.

The Bad

If the above section did not make it clear enough, Drummond's individual season was a success by any measure. The bad parts here are nitpicking.

The biggest worry with Drummond this season was that following the Blake Griffin trade he reverted back towards an uglier version of his game. The lack of spacing combined with a broken down offensive scheme meant that Drummond was suddenly spending a lot more time off the ball just hoping to get offensive rebounds and post-ups became more frequent. It is worth noting that with his free-throw improvement, post-ups were not the same black hole they had been. Drummond's confidence in facing up and forcing contact by driving to the basket yielded enough results that the occasional possession where he goes one on one should no longer cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth. That said, it shouldn't be more than an occasional thing.

The good news is that Drummond's slip into uglier offensive play is likely a result of the lack of spacing and the fact that the Pistons shipped out nearly half of their offensive possessions with Bradley and Harris. Those possessions were replaced by Blake Griffin, who could not be more different from Bradley and Harris. As such the Pistons struggling to get an offensive identity beyond "Just kind of go out and try and figure it out" was pretty understandable. When Drummond played with players who he had more chemistry and comfort with, mainly when he was with the bench mob, he slipped right back into being an effective hub at the elbows with players whirring around him.

The only other real downside is that for his great defensive improvements, Drummond does still have work to do. His focus was still not totally there every night, there were games where he reached too much and didn't move quickly enough. With the Pistons current roster, their best hope to become a high-level defensive team (and potentially a contender from there) is for Drummond to become a defensive player of the year candidate. To reach those heights he still has to smooth out a lot of edges in his game.

Biggest Question?

Can Drummond (and the new coaching staff) find a way to effectively use Drummond alongside Blake Griffin? A smart staff should be able to make magic with such a great passing pair of bigs, but there is worry that Drummond post ups become a regular reality again which would be very bad. A return to that way of playing is the only thing that could bring Drummond down from here.

Biggest Answer

It's the free throws. No way it could be anything else. Assuming he doesn't fall off at some point, it is one of the greatest individual success stories in the NBA that doesn't involve a terrible injury or drug addiction. At times Drummond caught flak for "shushing" an opposing crowd after hitting free throws despite being far behind in the game. I personally don't care. When Drummond hits both free throws after the hostile crowd heckles him he is allowed to do cartwheels all the way down the court for all I care.

The Verdict

Andre Drummond is elite. He is a true all-star player who is just starting his prime, those are the guys you want. His season is the primary reason why all the calls to tear down the entire team and restart are so silly, a 24-year-old all-star is what you are trying to get out of a rebuild and Drummond is under contract and (supposedly) not unhappy in Detroit. Until his contract comes closer to being done or he decides he wants out the Pistons would be foolish to trade him.

Looking Forward

Making the most of Drummond and Griffin's considerable, but not always clean fitting, skills will be a big task of the new coaching staff. A proper starting point guard (whether Reggie Jackson or someone else) will go a long way in this department but there will be work to do. The Pistons will also likely need Andre Drummond to take another step on the defensive end to become real contenders in the East.

What about jump shooting though? Modern bigs need to do it! You need a jump-shooting big man to succeed in today's NBA!

Yeah, there are no teams who have had any success with centers who don't shoot. Other than like, a lot of teams that is. The reality is that shooting helps, but defensive prowess remains the most important thing a center can bring in today's NBA. Clint Capela, Rudy Gobert, and Steven Adams are all great young bigs on teams that have (to varying degrees) won a lot of games over the last few years. All of them are high-level defensive players. Drummond will probably never be Gobert (because Gobert is absurd) but he is certainly capable of being Adams or Capela, I'd actually say he's probably better than them on defense already, also remember that none of those three areas offensively versatile as Drummond is at this point.

Even when you look at teams featuring shooting bigs, they are elite defenders. Anthony Davis is one of the most destructive defenders to ever live, so is Draymond Green. (also worth mentioning, Draymond Green can't shoot) Al Horford is an elite defender as well. Meanwhile, the Cavs are an excellent example of why it is stupid to hunt a shooting big man over everything. One of the (less talked about) reasons the Cavs fell off this season is that Tristan Thompson forgot how to play basketball. Kevin Love is a very good shooter and elite passer, he is everything people seem to want from a modern big, yet he at center doesn't really work over long periods because the Cavs can't defend anyone. The Cavs have been at their best over the past few years when Thompson is at center and playing defense at a high level. If you took away the shooting abilities of Al Horford or Anthony Davis (I'm not counting Green because once again, he can't shoot) but left them with everything else they would still be elite bigs in this league. If you took away their defensive abilities they wouldn't be. If the shooting was so valuable then Nic Vucevic would be leading the Magic to yet another great season.

All that said, Drummond has improved in every area since coming into the NBA. If he can learn to really shoot it would not be a bad thing, but I'd much rather have him become one of the best defenders in the league than be able to hit 35% of his three-pointers.