November 24, 2009
Jonathan GivonyAlready considered by many as the top prospect in his high school class, Andre Drummond (Scout ?, Rivals ?, #1 ESPN) has garnered an incredible amount of attention for a player only 16 years old.
Drummond was actually a member of the 2011 class, but elected to reclassify before he blew up on the national level, as he was seen as a major project on and off the court who could use another year of high school basketball playing close to home before leaving for college. There is apparently some thought to move him back to his original class to allow him to participate in the McDonald’s All-American game and give him the benefit of competing against stronger competition in college that crucial year of development, but no final decision has been made at this point.
From a physical standpoint, it’s not difficult to tell why Drummond is as highly touted as he is. He stands a legit 6-11, with a massive wingspan (rumored to be somewhere around 7-5) and a huge frame that will have no problem carrying all the weight he needs at any level of competition. His body is well proportioned and he appears to be about as fluid and coordinated as you could expect a 16-year old to be.
Athletically, Drummond is very solid, running the floor like a deer and looking very quick getting off his feet. He’s not what you would call a freak athlete, but certainly will not be held back by his mobility from what we could tell, and probably has not reached his full athletic potential at this point in time. We should also keep in mind that Drummond was just coming off recovering from a stress fracture that put him out of commission to start the season, and probably affected his conditioning.
Offensively, Drummond shows excellent potential, but is still a fairly limited player as you can probably imagine considering his age. He sports big, soft hands which allow him to catch pretty much everything thrown his way, and has the type of frame needed to be an outstanding presence inside the paint. His touch looks outstanding, particularly on the series of jump-hooks we saw him score with, and he seems to have some potential as a mid-range shooter as well based off what we saw in warm-ups. Drummond shoots the ball from his chest, something that must be corrected eventually, but the fact that he’s already making shots from distance leaves a lot of room for optimism regarding the future.
On the downside, Drummond is still very much a raw prospect who would clearly struggle against high-level competition at this juncture. He has very little idea how to establish position in the paint and use his amazing body to his advantage, lacking a great deal in the ways of footwork and post-moves and struggling with basic concepts like passing out of the post and respecting the spacing of his team’s half-court offense. He doesn’t appear to be the type of player whom everything comes naturally for, sporting somewhat of an average IQ that is likely further accentuated by his lack of experience and all-around polish.
Defensively, we find much of the same. On one hand, Drummond has incredible potential due to his phenomenal physical attributes, something that already makes him a huge asset even in his current raw state. He can block shots with either hand and is a massive presence in the paint thanks to his terrific length and solid timing, contesting pretty much everything that comes his way and being extremely difficult to post up with his sheer girth.
On the other hand, Drummond’s fundamentals are incredibly poor, looking fairly clueless at times while roaming around aimlessly, and being extremely foul prone on top of that. He’s not the toughest or most reactive guy or you’ll find right now—something to keep an eye on as he gets older—and has all kinds of issue stepping out onto the perimeter and trying to move his feet out and react to quicker players attacking him off the dribble.
Something to keep in mind is that all these issues are highly correctable and are very much to be expected from a player at his stage of development. Drummond must realize that though and continue to work on his all-around game exhaustively if he’s to reach his full potential. The good news is that, despite being a little on the immature side, Drummond is supposedly a very high character young man with a strong support system around him. He looks like a good teammate on top of that from what we could tell in the two games we saw him.
Drummond has a long road ahead of him to making the NBA, but he’s obviously off to a great start. We’ll have to wait and see how things turn out from here, starting in college. The favorites to land his services at this stage are clearly Jim Calhoun and the hometown UConn Huskies, which, if history is any indication, wouldn’t be a bad place for a big man to get ready for the NBA.
5/31/2010 3:32 PM