Drummond will be top 20 next year. I see him having a monster year, especially under Van Gundy, who developed Dwight Howard into what he is today. Andre is going to average 20 pts and 15 boards this year.
I really think Drummond has even more scoring potential than people realize. He scored 13.5 PPG last season, a season in which he had no offensive plays called for him. Nearly all of his points came from putbacks (top 10 offensive rebounding season of all time... at age 20!), alley oops, and dump of passes under the hoop. It was exceedingly rare that Drummond was given a chance to create his own offensive in the post.
While Drummond still has a ways to go in his post game development, he's already shown this preseason some serious offensive improvement. In the preseason game against Washington he hit an impressive array of hook shots and was perfect from the field. And more importantly, at times the offense ran through him; something that seemingly never happened in his first two seasons. More offensive opportunities will lead to a likely uptick in points. Drummond scored 13.5 PPG last season on very limited touches.
The addition of Stan Van Gundy will also be a massive boon for Andre Drummond's career trajectory. Keep in mind that SVG was the coach who mentored Dwight Howard and helped him become the dominant force he was in Orlando. Now Van Gundy is the Pistons' coach, president, GM, you name it; and he's stated the team is going to be built around Andre Drummond. We all know here what an insane athlete Drummond is. He's legitimately one of the best athletes in the NBA and he's massive as a 7 footer weighing in at 280 pounds. He moves like an athletic wing player. He's bigger and more athletic than Dwight, and this season Drummond will be 21.
I really think he's going to be a superstar in the league sooner rather than later. He's got the freakish size and athleticism, and now he's having the perfect system built around him. He's going to be in a great position to succeed.
Here's his highlights from his 9-for-9 game against the Wizards:
