The Philadelphia 76ers have a lot of impending decisions to make when free agency opens. While that is still more than a month away, the sheer volume of the players on their roster who could hit the open market has made it incumbent upon the front office to act early and lay down their plans for the summer. One front that will need addressing is Andre Drummond, who will be available for taking this offseason.
Drummond, who had just wrapped up his 14th year as a pro, turned in a very serviceable campaign for the 76ers. After a down year last season (primarily due to injuries), he came out strong this year for the most part, giving the team some much-needed lift at the center position with Joel Embiid missing 44 games during the regular season. He is not expected to be costly in the open market, and for that reason, the team should not just let him go.
Granted, there are numerous reasons to finally move on from the former All-Star, who has shown clear signs of decline in some aspects of his game. However, the advantages of keeping him in the fold outweigh the cons attendant with pursuing another year with him.
The 76ers should keep Andre Drummond in free agency
Drummond has greatly waned as a play finisher and a rim deterrent, but he has added something to his game which made him a tad more useful –– three-point shooting. While no one will mistake him for an actual marksman, he has actually been steady enough for the 76ers out in the perimeter that it became viable to trot him out there in spurts as the center in five-out configurations.
Sure, he might have proven himself to be unplayable in certain matchups (ahem, against the Knicks), but he has been more than adequate enough against most opponents. Moving forward, the ideal role for him is to serve as the third-string big man, and the 76ers would be hard-pressed to find a better option to fill that role than Drummond.
There is also a sense of comfort between both camps which makes another partnership all the more sensible. If anything, the 76ers need someone predictable whom they can bank on to provide the basic necessities of a big man, such as rebounding, and there is nobody who embodies board-crashing more than him.
For those reasons, the 76ers will do much worse than re-sign Andre Drummond. As long as the veteran’s minimum is at play, it should be risk-free to get him back for at least another year.
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