Welcome back to NBA Fantasy Breakout – the 10-part series where I present you with players who I think are going to have breakout fantasy seasons.
#9 Andre Drummond PF/C Detroit Pistons
Anyone who watched Detroit Piston games last year was subjected to moments of physical awe. Those moments came from one guy, Andre Drummond. Drummond did things that we have not seen from any NBA big man other than Dwight Howard in the last fifteen years. Andre comes in at a true six foot ten and weighs 270 pounds. The knock on Drummond coming into the 2012 NBA draft was that he was a player that gave sporadic effort in his time at the University of Connecticut. The consensus was that if he learned how to be a professional that played with an all out effort, the sky would be the limits on this young stud. The good thing about his rookie season was that we never once heard his effort put into question. That probably explains why he was just about as good statistically his first year in the NBA as he was in his only year at UConn. Below are his rookie season stats and his per 36 averages at his rookie rate.
Andre Drummond 2012-13 Statistics
| G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| 60 | 10 | 20.7 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 0.61 | 0.37 | 7.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 7.9 |
Andre Drummond 2012-13 Per 36 Statistics
| G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| 60 | 10 | 36.0 | 6.0 | 9.9 | 0.61 | 0.37 | 13.2 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 4.2 | 13.8 |
What I take away from those stats are that he was a solid fantasy performer as a rookie. As I mentioned in the first part of the series, playing time will have an effect on projecting fantasy breakouts. If Drummond is able to pick up ten to fifteen more minutes a game, he could be in line to be a top thirty fantasy player. He could really carry your rebounding and field goal percentage categories every week. The one thing you will need to consider when drafting Drummond is that he was one of the worst free throw shooters that we have seen from a player that will play real minutes in the NBA. As a result, you should target a few high free throw percentage guys like Curry or Durant with a first round pick to make up the difference. On the bright side, he did improve his free throw shooting by eight percent from his season at UConn. With the lack of elite big men in fantasy basketball and centers in particular, this guy may be someone that you should look at targeting a little earlier than you think so you don’t get beat to the punch on a guy that may swing a lot of leagues. My predictions are based on the Andre Drummond that we saw last year. I am not going very far out on a limb to think that he will come back as an improved player. If that is the case we will be seeing a much better fantasy player and probably the best player from the 2012 draft. Stay tuned next week to find out who my #8 player is.
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References:www.basketball-reference.com
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