The video above comes from the USA Basketball YouTube account. New Orleans Pelicans' coach and Team USA assistant Monty Williams is working with Detroit Pistons' center Andre Drummond on developing his post game. Williams goes over the rhythm of the post game, how to hold the ball so guards can't easily swipe down and create a turnover, and other tricks of the trade. If Drummond is brought onto the final 12-man roster for the FIBA World Cup in Spain, it's unlikely he'll be asked to score much, if at all, in the post.
That doesn't mean working on it in a training environment like this can't pay off for him. Drummond will be working with Stan Van Gundy for the first time in his career this season, thanks to Van Gundy taking over the coaching and personnel roles in Detroit. Van Gundy will need him to be enough of a threat in the post to keep the defense honest and open up the perimeter.
Last season, Drummond was not a good post player by any means. Synergy Sports had him ranked in the 23rd percentile for post scoring efficiency, scoring just 0.705 points per post-up possession. He made just 40.3 percent of his shots and turned the ball over 17 percent of the time. Part of that is he because is such a bad free throw shooter and free throw attempts generated from the post-up plays count toward that efficiency.
He was relatively fine on both lower blocks, but struggled when flashing to the middle for quick scores. Keeping the turnovers down and comfort in the way he times his movement from dribble to shot could allow him a much better overall scoring threat down low. If that happens and Van Gundy has a weapon like Drummond on pick-and-rolls and in the post, this Pistons team could really take off right away.
