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In the Pistons' preseason game against the Orlando Magic, Andre Drummond saw time on the floor with Greg Monroe for the first time. Drummond brought the blocks and dunks again, including an alley-oop from Monroe, and overall their time together was a net positive. Following the game, Monroe was asked about playing more with Drummond:
Monroe on playing more with Drummond: "After tonight, I think (Frank) might just try to play with it a little bit more in the preseason"
— Keith Langlois (@Keith_Langlois) October 17, 2012
The natural progression is to have Drummond one day starting alongside Monroe -- but how soon? XstreamINsanity has a great FanPost answering why Drummond should not be a starter just yet. I tend to agree with almost everything he has to say there, although I don't think it's about confidence concerns. I also liked aussipiston's comment about making Drummond continue to work for the start rather than it being somewhat gifted to him based on a high draft status and a few good games against bad opponents in the preseason.
Drummond will probably start sometime this season and in the meantime I don't think it's a horrible alternative to have a player like him coming off the bench for half the game. Starting or not, I'm more worried about him receiving a good chunk of minutes every night. If in those minutes he continues to put up monster numbers, then Frank needs to re-evaluate accordingly.
But what do you think? Vote in the semi-facetious poll and comment below.
- Jason Maxiell isn't going down without a fight, either [MLIVE]:
- Drummond has 30/1 odds to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award, according to Bovada. Anthony Davis has the best odds at 19/10. NBA.com doesn't even mention Drummond on their Rookie Ladder season preview.
- Keith Langlois' latest on how the rotation is playing out. Will Bynum and Andre Drummond are trending up.
- This is somewhat old news, but Tom Gores is selling his Beverly Hills mansion for just a little more than what Charlie Villanueva will make this season.
- SacTown Royalty looks takes a look at this year's Pistons. [H/T DBB's danieldresden on Twitter]
- The NBA is going to try to cut down on pre-game handshake routines. Ridiculous. Yahoo has more on the story.
- Chauncey Billups targets November return to Clippers.
- 2013 draft prospect Patrick Young of Florida has an insane workout that includes pulling and pushing cars, but he needs to do more squats. Dominate!
- Can happiness help players perform better?
"I'm not going to take it easy because they're rookies and they don't know what's going on," Maxiell said today at the Pistons' practice facility. "They have to learn by going through it." [...]
"Everybody's position was up for grabs during training camp," Maxiell said. "I just tried to come into camp in great shape, in a great mindset, knowing that, yeah, I'm a starter in this league, so therefore I'm going to retain that spot."
Shootaround the NBA: