Los Angeles Lakers emerging problem… Andre Drummond is starting to affect the team on offense and defense!
Lake Show Life has been hinting at this problem for a while now, but couldn’t come out with a strong statement because these two players haven’t played enough together. Now it’s the playoffs and nobody has time for being politically correct with “homer” analysis.
Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond don’t fit well together on the basketball court.
The first half of this game showed enough. The Lakers can’t afford many more 5-point first-half performances from AD trying to force a role for Andre Drummond to make him happy. He’s starting to clog things up on both ends of the floor. Let’s go into them, shall we?
Offensive end:
Andre Drummond is not skilled enough to work the perimeter (Hence the reason why Marc Gasol was never waived!) so he takes up all of the area in the paint.
This forces Anthony Davis one or two steps further out then where he would like to the tune of about 17 feet from the basket. This allows a crafty defender like Draymond Green to make him work with few options outside of a long jumper or a fadeaway mid range shot.
With the lanes clogged, AD can’t blow past Draymond Green without driving into traffic brought by Drummond’s presence.
Without Drummond on the floor, AD can move freely as the only big man to get the ball in much deeper interior position with triple threat options to get quality shots.
In Drummond’s final minutes on the floor, the Warriors were almost baiting the Lakers into feeding him in the post. The first time, Dre scored, the second time, he lost the ball and was on the floor as Golden State was off and running. He was never seen again.
Defensive end:
This is going to be quick and painless. Andre Drummond can’t play the pick and roll any better than Marc Gasol can. Sorry. It’s the truth and if Frank Vogel continues to play him in crunch time against the Suns, Chris Paul will make barbecued chicken of the Lakers defense.
He is vulnerable against centers that can shoot. See Golden State couldn’t hurt the Lakers as much Phoenix can because Draymond Green played center and most fans (and teams!) know he can’t shoot. (To anyone that thinks this is harsh, the man shot 0-5 from the field aka cardio for 2 points!).
AD allows the Lakers to switch more efficiently on defense while still maintaining size in the frontcourt (Assuming Kyle Kuzma shows up!) for rim protection with LeBron James.
With Drummond off the floor (Okay Dennis Schroder too!) The Lakers were also able to slow the dribble handoff action between Steph and Draymond at the end.
Bottom line, Anthony Davis can guard all five positions and switch everything. Andre Drummond can barely guard two. Davis is a 7 footer that can step out to the perimeter and counter to the small ball schemes that Phoenix will use in the upcoming series. Drummond cannot.
Lake Show Life will end this NBA Play-In Tournament coverage with a dose of reality. Read on!