When I saw this comment by Andre Drummond I was shocked that a current NBA player even knew the value of being a strong rebounder. With everyone positioned outside the arc waiting to launch three point shots there are very few players that crash the offensive glass, so defensive rebounds are unusually uncontested.
Andre Drummond to his credit is easily the strongest rebounder in the league at rhe moment. That's right. Drummond has significantly more 20 point - 20 rebound games (41) than EVERY current NBA player including the All-Pros and Top 75 players. In fact, when Drummond played for the Philadelphia 76ers as Joel Embiid's back up, the Sixers had a player record three 20/20 games. Andre Drummond had ALL OF THEM!!!
Now that we have established that Andre Drummond is a "beast" on the boards, here are the stats. Drummond has played in 718 games, and averages 13.8 ppg along with 13.3 rpg. During the past two seasons Drummond has had to take on a back up role so his rebound total has dipped slightly. Otherwise, Drummond would be one of only a rare few players ever to average double figures in scoring with a higher rebound average. I do not personally know of any, and I causally checked.
Despite all of this justified positivity for Andre Drummond's rebounding prowess, he has absolutely no chance of being the NBA rebound king. First of all, the NBA rebound champion is Wilt Chamberlain, and he averaged 22.9 rebounds per game. That is 9.8 more rebounds per game than Andre Drummond. Drummond is literally 7026 rebounds behind Chamberlain at the same point in his career.
Although Drummond leads all active players with forty-one (41) 20/20 games, he is not even close to the record. Wilt Chamberlain averaged 30.1 ppg & 22.9 rpg for his entire career - 1045 games Chamberlain literally has over 1000 more 20/20 games than Andre Drummond!!!
Furthermore, Wilt Chamberlain was not the only great rebounder in the NBA. For example, Bill Russell averaged an incredible 22.5 rebounds per game. In addition, Russell had eleven (11) games of 40 or more rebounds!!! Also, three players (Bob Pettit - Jerry Lucas - Nate Thurmond) averaged more than 15 rpg which would EASILY lead the league today.
For the record, Andre Drummond's rebound average is number eleven (11) All-time, and his rebound total ranks him at number forty six (46). With respect to "attacking the glass" Andre Drummond is a throwback, unfortunately not far enough back.
* Andre Drummond was not selected as a Top 75 player but he is Top 30 All-time at his position. You can see where Drummond and/or your favorite player(s) rank on the All-time (Top 150), just click the link below.
No comments:
Post a Comment