Rebounding is a lost art in a lot of ways because most basketball players consider it to be a secondary or tertiary skill in their arsenal. But it’s still a very important aspect of the modern game. That’s why Andre Drummond realized pretty early in his career that he may thrive for a long period in the NBA if he makes rebounding his specialty.
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However, Drummond may have roasted Paul George inadvertently with his pursuit of greatness in rebounding. PG admitted during Drummond’s appearance on Podcast P with Paul George that he was very surprised when he got the 31-year-old’s text after signing for the 76ers last year.
“So when I first signed to Philadelphia and then [Drummond] signed to Philadelphia, he f**ked me up, because you remember this, you text me about getting in the gym. So I’m like cool, we’re gonna work on some pick and roll sh*t, you know what I mean, how we feed off each other,” George said.
“Dude text me, ‘I wanna see how you miss.’ I’ve never heard that…I was like, ‘That’s different,'” he added as everyone burst out in laughter.
PG obviously realized that Drummond was trying to observe his shooting patterns to understand where to expect the rebounds of his shots to fall. That’s a crucial part of mastering the art of rebounding.
George even explained to the viewers how elite rebounders like Dennis Rodman would study the shooting patterns of different players to keep a rough estimate of where to be when certain players shoot the ball. Because they already know the area the ball will end up in after rimming out.
Drummond’s stats reflect his hard work on rebounding the basketball. The two-time All-Star has been the NBA’s leading rebounder four times, averaging a staggering 12.4 rebounds in his career. The 2017-18 campaign with the Detroit Pistons saw Drummond collect a career-high 16 rebounds.
These kinds of numbers were only possible because the veteran center studied the shooting styles of different players like he did with PG.
Andre Drummond on how different NBA stars shoot
During the same episode of Podcast P, co-host Dallas Rutherford urged Drummond to reveal some of the shooting tendencies of well-known NBA stars. He asked him not to talk about Philly stars because that could hurt their own team.
“I played with [Kevin Durant], so I could tell you a lot of his shots are off the back of the rim, so I try to do my work early to have the ball in front of me,” Drummond said.
He also added that Kyrie usually has a soft touch which allows rebounders to tip in the ball after it bounces out.
Even though Drummond already knows most NBA players’ shooting tendencies, he admitted that he still stays back after practice to collect the rebounds of his team’s shooters, just to sharpen his craft.