Seeing Rumors That The Celtics Are "Monitoring" Andre Drummond's Contract Talks Makes Me Want To Vomit
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Anyone who has been a fan of the Boston Celtics knows that there cannot be a trade deadline or an offseason without them being tied to someone that is a "big name". Despite the fact that 99.9% of the time nothing ever happens, that won't stop the "reports" or "rumors" from existing. A player is unhappy in his current situation? You know what that means!
Danny Ainge must be involved! He's for sure "monitoring" several situations that are never actually going to happen. Add in the "reports" going around right now that he is also looking to move up to the top of the lottery and we are checking all offseason boxes right now. Your Celtics Offseason bingo card is filling up by the second. We know how this ends, nothing will happen, we'll get the same quotes about how "they were in on a bunch of things" and are "always looking to improve" only for things to fall apart at the last second.
But just like I did the last time this bullshit with Andre Drummond came up at the trade deadline, I will repeat my stance for anyone who maybe doesn't remember.
Adding Andre Drummond to this team would do more harm than good. It would be a step backwards, not forwards towards an NBA Finals or even a championship. I shouldn't need to, but I'll explain why.
1. The Price
Andre Drummond has 1 year at $28M left on his deal before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. It sure doesn't look like he's going to sign an extension in CLE, and I find it hard to believe a S&T is how this ends. So that means Ainge has to match that $28M salary for a player on an expiring deal. The most common idea is to trade Gordon Hayward. Remember, if Drummond leaves next season it's not like the Celts get $28M in cap space. They're fucked regardless in terms of their cap. Look at how the NBA is trending and tell me it makes sense to give up what could potentially be multiple years of Hayward on a new deal for one year of Andre Drummond. It doesn't.
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2. Style
There is no doubt Drummond is one of the best rebounders in the NBA. It's OK to admit that. I'm here to argue that rebounding is not all that big a deal currently on the Celtics. Did you know they were 8th in the league last year in rebounds per game? They were 15th in opponents 2nd chance points and 3rd in opponents points in the paint. If your argument is that Drummond's rebounding is his best skill, that's fine, but it's not worth losing what it takes to get that rebounding when rebounding isn't exactly that big of a problem.
How about this for some cold hard facts. Enes Kanter finished the season with a 23.5% REB%. Andre Drummond? 22.0%. Not only that, he was much worse on the offensive glass. Have you seen this team shoot? They need offensive rebounders.
Drummond also ya know, doesn't shoot. We have a big on the roster that already does that and is a whole lot younger, his name is Robert Williams. Not only that, but in P&R Drummond isn't exactly a world beater either. In 49 games as a Piston he ranked in the 27th percentile in P&R. As a Cav that jumped to 75th, but it was only 8 games. As a post up player in DET, he ranked in the 49th percentile. So someone explain how exactly he fits in the Celts system? He doesn't stretch the floor, he doesn't really flourish in P&R or post ups, so why would you give up your lineup flexibility for that?
3. Matchups
Everyone loves to talk about how the Celts need a big so they can handle Joel Embiid/Giannis/Bam. I'm sorry, did nobody see this shit?
Embiid owns him. Averages 27.7/10 and mentally dominates Drummond every time they play. Meanwhile, the combination of Kanter/Theis actually held their own against Embiid on several occasions. Would you rather give up valuable pieces and pay someone $28M to still get dominated by Embiid or pay like $10M and give up nothing and actually have some success? So right off the bat you do not solve what many consider to be their biggest challenge.
Then you have Giannis/Bam. What do you think happens when they take Drummond in space? Automatic buckets, that's what happens. You can't guard either of those guys with a traditional big with slow lateral movement. We know what that looks like, we've seen Kanter try and do it, shit, we saw Kelly Olynyk try and do it. That's not the answer.
So, if the idea is you need to have someone on the roster to limit those three guys, Andre Drummond cannot do it against any of them.
I'm sure there are some out there that would have no problem swapping Gordon Hayward for Andre Drummond. Those people are idiots, do not listen to them. If you want to come up with a trade for Hayward, that's your right. But the answer is not Andre Drummond. It will never be Andre Drummond. He's a fine player for someone to bring in, but not this team. Not with how they are constructed and how they play. So for the millionth time