Hopefully all 10 toes and other necessary appendages can stay in tact this time.
After their defeat in the first round of the 2024 playoffs to the New York Knicks, the Sixers felt themselves wanting more Joel Embiid insurance. They used cap space to bring in a high profile backup, signing Andre Drummond to a two-year, $10 million dollar deal.
Despite Embiid not being ready for the start of the season, that insurance did not come in handy. Drummond, like the rest of the team, could not have gotten off
to a worst start to the 2024-25 season. Despite being thrust into the starting lineup, his rebounds per game and block rate were reduced to half of his career averages. Things only got worse when he suffered a toe injury on Dec. 23 against the Spurs, a game that saw him get ejected for about three minutes before having that overturned.
Drummond tried to fight through the injury but was only able to play five games over the next two months. It wasn’t until he finally sat for an extended stretch that he realized how much the injury was impacting everything on the court.
So it wasn’t much of a shock when Drummond picked up his player option to return to Philadelphia this upcoming season. His role on this team is certainly less clear than it was a season a go. If Embiid is able to play basketball on a semi-regular basis, perhaps they’ll need a quality backup center to eat innings, but who is counting on that these days?
The problem Drummond faces here is that regardless of any role that could be asked of him, there is a younger center on the roster who might already be flat out better. While it didn’t result in many wins, it became clear in January and February that Adem Bona just gave them a better chance to compete. His 3.7% block rate dwarfed Drummond’s at 1.3%, while their foul rates were fairly comparable at 4.7 to 4.4% despite Bona being a second-round rookie.
Bona still posted worse rebounding rates, but that difference felt negligible as Drummond was having the worst rebounding season of his career. Drummond is far from the player winning rebounding titles and making All-Star games with the Pistons, but his drop-off last season was stark. In similar minutes in his 2023-24 season with the Chicago Bulls he averaged 8.4 points and nine rebounds per game, as well as a much more respectable block rate of 1.9%
So there is hope that Drummond is not nearly as washed as he looked last season. Like many other Sixers, a clean bill of health could do wonders in that department. If the Sixers want to, or are even forced to shift their focus around the younger guards they’ve begun to stockpile, does he have a place with them?
There’s a lot of buzz right now that Drummond could be moved before the season even starts. Jake Fischer reported recently that the Sixers are looking to move one, if not both of Drummond and Kelly Oubre Jr. in attempt to free up more money to pay Quentin Grimes. Our own affiliate, NetsDaily, reported that Brooklyn could be a potential landing spot for him.
If that’s the asking price though, maybe not.
While that could be the right move, there are some reasons to have caution of dumping Drummond, even if Embiid is not ready for the start of the season. Even if Bona does get the starting center job opening night, he can’t play every minute every night. Someone is going to have to split that time with him. This close to the start of the season, they aren’t going to find any better options on the free agent market.
Drummond’s destiny for this season may just be a moveable, expiring contract. At this moment though, the Sixers have three centers on their roster and can only count on two to be reliably available. At some point, if a ground ball is hit to first base, someone’s got to be there to pick it up.
