You probably have never heard of the ailment that troubled Andre Drummond ... the one that landed him on a surgeon’s table at the end of last season. The multi-talented center had been playing in the NBA with a deviated septum. He sustained an injury to his nose just before being drafted in 2011, and further injured it in his second season. The injury meant that the Detroit Pistons All-Star suffered breathing problems, with only his right nostril open. And even that was a partial opening— until he underwent the reconstructive surgery.
The new, improved/repaired Drummond surfaced to play his first post-operation basketball at a Summer League in the Los Angeles area, and the difference has been amazing. First, he has lost about 10kg weight since the operation. Secondly, he’s been playing amazing basketball, moving better and showing nothing of the (bad) on-court habits that made him a target of jibes from many, including Pistons coach Stan van Gundy, at some point last season.
The truth was: the deviated septum meant that Drummond had been breathing through one nostril, and his conditioning suffered. What the Pistons and the fans saw was a ‘deteriorating’ player, as the 23-year-old’s production slipped badly. The player who ended his first season as an All-Rookie, then was named MVP of the NBA Rising Stars Challenge in 2014, became an NBA All-Star in 2016 and was included in the All-NBA Second Team at the end of the same 2016 season, was playing at a level below what was expected, following what could be described as a breakout 2015/16 season.
That year, Drummond averaged a career-high 16.2 ppg and added a League-high 14.8 rpg. He attempted 13.1 field goals every game and was so active in the opponents’ paint, that his free-throw attempts per game averaged out at 7.2 free-throws every game. All these in 32.9 minutes per night. All-Star players build on that, right? For Drummond, it wasn’t to be; instead of improving, his statistics crumbled. Drummond’s minutes went down to 29.7 per night, his rebounds went south to 13.8 rpg, he averaged just 13.6 ppg and the FT reduced to 4.4 attempts each night. In fact, the man who had been the franchise player was named as a possible trade bait. It was that bad.
But everything has changed now. The lithe, mobile player that put up a breathtaking performance on the opening night of the Summer League, looks more like the 2016 All-Star than the 2017 Drummond version. And that is the version the world will see, when he suits up for Team World at the NBA Africa Game.
The new, improved Drummond was showcasing himself to a limited audience in Los Angeles; come the first week of August, though, Drummond will have a worldwide audience, and, fittingly, the American-born star of Jamaican descent will be doing it from the stage set in front of a South African audience in the NBA Africa Game 2017.
