National Basketball Association

Detroit Pistons: Andre Drummond Aiming For Another Rebounding Crown

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond has made defending his first career rebounding title a priority heading into the 2016-17 season. As he heads into his fifth NBA season, Drummond has already become a historically great offensive rebounder.

Andre Drummond has no intention of relinquishing his throne as the NBA’s rebounding king.

In his fourth season, the center for the Detroit Pistons simply couldn’t be boxed out, as he led the league in both offensive rebounds (395) and defensive rebounds (803), resulting in his first career rebounding title.

The feat of pulling down the most offensive and defensive rebounds in the same season had only previously accomplished by Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, Dennis Rodman and Dwight Howard.

Drummond dominated the category from opening night, as he pulled down 19 rebounds against Atlanta and never stopped, hauling in 15 or more rebounds nine times during the first 10 games of the season.

Three nights after torturing the Hawks, Drummond totaled 29 rebounds (11 offensive, 18 defensive) against Indiana, the best single-game performance during the 2015-16 campaign. Of the 36 performances with 20 or more rebounds submitted last year, 25 percent came from Drummond.

He never relinquished his status as league-leader in rebounding at any point during the year, and the result was a career-high 14.8 per game — one entire more rebound than any other player in the league.

The 23-year-old center became the youngest player since Malone in 1977-78 to average more than 14.5 rebounds a game.

Detroit rewarded Drummond for his efforts this summer, signing him to a five-year, $130 million extension.

Instead of playing for Team USA at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Drummond focused on his individual workouts and shed 20 pounds.

The 6-foot-11 center is hoping the weight loss will propel him to another rebounding title by enabling him to stay on the floor more than the 32.9 minutes a night he averaged a season ago.

Collecting more rebounds than anyone else in the league is a goal Drummond has set for himself, as he revealed to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.

“I’m going to win the rebounding crown again. I’m going for it – no doubt about it.”

Opponents found it nearly impossible to keep Drummond off the glass, as he led the league with 66 double-doubles, the highest figure any player has posted in the last eight years.

During 84.4 percent of his regular season appearances, Drummond managed to post at least 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Few players have ever been as effective at chasing down missed shots from their own teammates, as he has led the league in offensive rebounds during each of the past three seasons.

Only Rodman (four straight years) and Malone (seven straight years) have ever posted longer consecutive streaks of leading the league in offensive rebounds.

Drummond is one of just three players, joining Malone and Rodman, to grab 400 or more offensive rebounds in more than one season.

Since entering the league as the ninth overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, Drummond has solidified himself as the premier offensive rebounder in the league.

Since 2000, Drummond is the only player to appear in over 25 games and average more than five offensive rebounds a night, a feat he has accomplished twice.

Last season, Drummond secured 59.8 percent of the available offensive rebounds to him, the highest percentage of any player to average more than 1.5 offensive rebounds a night.

No other player even threatened to supplant Drummond as the league’s top offensive rebounder last season. Drummond led the league by averaging 4.9 offensive rebounds a night, with Clippers center DeAndre Jordan ranking second at 3.5 a game.

The gulf between Drummond and the rest of the league extends much further than the disparity in offensive rebounding averages. Drummond totaled 127 more offensive rebounds than anyone else in the NBA.

As a team, the entire Atlanta Hawks team totaled just 284 more offensive rebounds than Drummond.

The separation from Drummond and everyone else more than 100 offensive rebounds for the second time in the past three years.

Since the NBA started keeping track of offensive rebounds during the 1973-74 season, only Malone and Drummond have managed to finish with 100 more than anyone else in the league on multiple occasions.

To secure his first career rebounding title, Drummond was just as dominant on the defensive end of the floor, as he finished just seven rebounds shy of averaging 10 defensive rebounds a night.

Drummond grabbed 70.5 percent of the available defensive rebonds to him, and only Jordan and Kevin Durant managed to post a higher percentage while averaging over 7.0 defensive rebounds a night.

With his eyes set on another rebounding title, perhaps the only true challenge remaining for Drummond is just where he can place historically.