He's not Dwight Howard. Dwight was awesome with his defensive rotations. He was able to show and recover. Dwight for all his dumb decisions in terms of teams and what he wanted was and is a very smart defensive player. Meanwhile on Steph Curry Drummond doesn't show haed at the 3 point line? Come on dude.and looks at this crap: He was supposed to make up for it by being able to dominate the glass but I admire GS coaching staff and players they sacrificed their bodies with great box outs and totally negated his rebounding
did he...set a screen on kcp? that was totally bizarre. i think the coaches will need to have a talk with rob about being at least somewhat involved in roster decisions. gs is well-coached, led by two high-iq players and has a roster full of guys who know their roles and play within them (maybe oubre and wiggins aren't as great here, but generally speaking). they just don't have a ton of talent without thompson (who would put them right back in the top 4 in the west). we beat them because a) we still play great defense most of the game, and b) we have two elite talents to their one.
Just like our bigs last year.... he will be unplayable in some matchups, but useful in others. That goes for both him and Marc. And no, I would not have McGee and Dwight over Drum and Marc.
Don’t get the angst against Drummond. He was only -1 on the floor last night. He only played 16 minutes. He’s given us exactly what I expected him to when we signed him.
He was helpful finishing off the regular season with that run of double doubles. But will we see that in the playoffs. Theoretically he should give us some good minutes against Ayton.
I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but I think some of it is a reaction to the anti-Gasol sentiment this year. You could replace Drummond with Gasol in your post and that would encapsulate what a lot of us were saying all year about Marc.
I think both Marc and Drum received some abuse on the forum they did not deserve. It's often the new guy who is somehow guilty because we lost some games, or because his $tats don't look great. Both of them are good players and I like having them on the team. The depth is super nice to have in case someone goes down. Other teams don't have the luxury. Quick edit: It's funny how this works - we always find something to complain about these guys. "Yeah, Marc is smart and he's a team player, but he just had 2 points and 3 rebounds. Is he really making any impact? Where are the stats?" "Drummond? He had 18 points and 16 rebounds. But he's not smart and not a team player. The stats are meaningless, because he has no impact."
I don't know how anyone can watch film and still think he performed "ok" or what the lakers wanted out of him. The number of defensive errors and the general lack of spacing is glaring when you look at film. His +/- was saved because the Lakers had to go balls out of half time to get back in the game. He just doesn't fit well with AD.
I'm just saying that he isn't bad at all, and if he actually had more time to learn how to play with the team and, you know, just go to practice (ideally during the pre-season), those problems would be addressed to the best of his ability. Through coaching, mentoring, repetition, hard work in general. Basically he's doing OK everything considered. Not great, not horrible, but alright.
Truth be told, neither one is as good as the McGee/Howard tandem last year. Rob underestimated their value by letting them go. But the center trio of Drummond/Gasol/Trezz is still better than probably every playoff team in the West for the exception of Portland and Denver.
Lakers had very few options at the center position during the buy-out. Andre Drummond isn't the problem. Letting go of Dwight was. I said it when the Lakers got Montrezl that it was a huge mistake not getting Dwight because Dwight is the only big in the league willing to take a minimum but could give you 20 minutes of hard defense, amazing rebounding, and easy putbacks/lobs. Montrezl is getting exposed this season because without the Lakers shooting, the floor spacing doesn't open up the same way it did with the Clippers. With that being said, Drummond would be lucky to get any type of deal next season. He doesn't play winning basketball. He's a huge player who plays incredibly soft. His vertical is non-existent. Even someone in a wheelchair has a higher vertical than him. For Christ's sakes, you're 6'11. Why are you trying to lay the ball up softly instead of dunking the ball. If you can't dunk, then lose some weight. Unfortunately, too late for that. The reality of this will be Drummond being a 6'11 player with grease in his hands and not being able to jump over an ant. He would work well vs the Nets but any competent big would expose Drummond. Can't blame the Lakers for signing him, though. Very few options. Letting Dwight walk was an all-time bad move by Rob.
Drummond reminds me of Kwame with the ball in the post. Stone hands, butter fingers and zero shooting touch & handles. Zero elegance in his movements. Doesn't seem to have one "studied" go to move.
He's just one of those players who got into the league because he is big and bulky. Since he puts up nice numbers, they ignore that he is a losing player. That works when you're on a lottery team with very little hope of ever becoming good but when you need a winning type player, you want guys like Javale and Dwight Howard. That's the #1 mistake Rob made... he let go of two of the biggest Lakers bench guys and two centers who know their role, never complained, and gave you 30-40 minutes of high level center basketball. The Lakers got Drummond to replace Javale/Dwight... All they had to do was keep Dwight/Javale but we all know LeBron wanted to have Montrezl and the Lakers bent over and ruined the center position for Bron.
This team will go down unless it stops playing Drummond with AD. Just don't get the f***ing infatuation with him: misses layups, terrible hands, terrible rotations. Plus his whole attitude seems to just suck the energy out of the starting lineup. Well if they promised him a starting spot no matter what then they deserve this season to go down in a flame of injuries and stupid rotations
