Recently, some interesting news emerged from Team USA’s mini-camp:
That’s right folks, Andre Drummond is committing full-on to becoming a three-point threat this upcoming season. However, this shouldn’t come as any surprise to avid Pistons fans since Andre has been posting different clips of him working on perimeter shooting to his Instagram story as soon as the off-season started.
While normally NBA players are applauded for their willingness to expand their game, the reactions to Andre’s 3-point experiment have been mixed:
https://twitter.com/KantsImperative/status/1028097623541080066
https://twitter.com/clutch_boy_67/status/978357601707667456
Andre seems unfazed by all of the noise surrounding his training as he maintains his confidence:
Let’s take a deeper look at this development and see what the pro’s and con’s of it could be:
PRO’s:
- 3 is always better than 2.
- He may get a lot of unguarded 3-pointers early on, as teams might not respect that facet of his game until he proves it.
- It could open up space for Blake in the paint once defenses start to respect Andre’s 3-pointer.
- If successful, it gives the Pistons another 3-point shooting big– which after Tolliver’s departure they severely could use.
- Expands his game and makes him a more versatile scoring threat in the modern NBA.
- Could boost his confidence if he can efficiently pull it off. Confidence may translate to other aspects of his game (rebounding, post work, passing and overall demeanor).
- Andre has shown improvement in the past when he has focused in on a traditionally weak aspect of his game (e.g. his improvement in FT% from 38% in 2016-2017 to 60% in 2017-2018)
CON’s:
- Andre has traditionally not shot very well from the perimeter (5 of 30 for his career, 16.7%).
- He has found most of his success historically with put-backs, dunks and layups from within 5 feet of the basket, this will pull him away from his sweet spots.
- Could potentially impact his offensive rebounding numbers since being much further from the rim for these 3-point attempts will put him in a bad rebounding position.
- If he struggles shooting the three, it could negatively impact his confidence and could lead to diminished play in other aspects of his game.
- If he struggles shooting the three, teams could exploit his willingness to shoot it by continuing to give him open looks.
Andre has proven to Pistons fans in the past that when he is engaged and motivated he can play impactful basketball. He has also proven in the past that he can make a big leap in shooting % as evidenced by the surprising improvement to his free throw percentage last season.
Maybe the added confidence from improving his free throw shooting is what is fueling his desire to become a 3-point shooter? Or maybe it is his awareness of the ever-evolving state of the league & how most modern NBA big men have to be able to stretch the floor?
Whatever it is, Pistons fans can only wait and see if his 3-point shooting vision will manifest positively when the regular season rolls around. If he does have a legit 3-pointer when the season starts- the NBA better watch out!
