Andre Drummond was drafted No. 9 overall by the Pistons on Thursday. Even though being selected in the top 10 suggests a player is going to be a game-changer at the next level, there are a few aspects of his game Andre Drummond has to improve.
Seriously, Drummond needs to be sent on a summer vacation to Herb Magee’s basement to work on his free throw shooting.
When you think of a notoriously bad free throw shooters, maybe Shaquille O’Neal comes to mind. As bad as Shaq was — and remember, Hack-a-Shaq was the only way to defend him — he was at least a career 52.7% shooter from the line. For comparison, in his one year of college, Andre Drummond shot 29.5% from the line. 29.5! And over the last 10 games of UConn’s season, Drummond shot just 18%.
Being a sub-60% shooter from the line in the NBA is horrible. A percentage of 50 makes you among the worst of all time. If Drummond remains around 30%, that would be an embarrassment of epic proportions. Yes, big men like Wilt Chamberlain have succeeded in the past struggling at the foul line (51.1%), but as of now it’s looking like Drummond is going to be fouled a lot during his first year with the Pistons until he can shoot almost as well as a 7-year-old from the charity stripe.
