Philadelphia 76ers: May Andre Drummond rebound forever

When Andre Drummond, who just turned 28 back in August, made his NBA debut, Jaden Springer, the Philadelphia 76ers‘ 2021 first-round pick, was 10 years old.

Drummond has appeared in 673 games, 660 in the regular season and 13 in the playoffs, been named an All-Star twice, and has the rare distinction of having led the Association in rebounding on four separate occasions, to go along with an All-NBA appearance and a spot on the All-Rookie team in 2013.

And on Thursday, November 18th, Drummond became only the 61st player in NBA history to log 9,000 or more rebounds in a career.

Granted, the vast majority of these rebounds came in a Detroit Pistons uniform, but so far this season, Drummond has already hauled in 162 boards in 15 games and leads the team in the statistical category by a very wide margin. Even if his time with the Philadelphia 76ers ultimately proves to be a one-and-doner, it’s clear Drummond’s historical significance will only continue to grow over the remainder of the second decade of the 21st century.

How did the Philadelphia 76ers sign Andre Drummond for the minimum again?

The 2021 NBA season was a special kind of stick for Andre Drummond.

After being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for John Henson, Brandon Knight, and a 2023 2nd round draft pick one year prior – a deal that is also very non-ideal for a once-franchise player – Drummond was bought out of his contract and signed a deal for the remainder of the 2020-21 NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers, in the hopes of filling the Grinch Kobe 6s left empty by Dwight Howard‘s decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.

On paper, such a pairing made sense. Even with Montrezl Harrell, Anthony Davis, and Marc Gasol already in the frat, Drummond instantly became the Lakers’ best rebounder and provided the team with their sixth double-digit scorer in any given game.

The problem? The Lakers just weren’t very good, and Drummond didn’t exactly make them better once he arrived.

Drummond didn’t help to space the court for an offense that ranked 24th overall in 3 point attempts per game and only appeared in five of the Lakers’ six playoff games as he was benched in Game 6 for a number of reasons you can read about here.

While some still assumed that Drummond could potentially return to the Lakers, even if their fans weren’t super into the idea, that door swung shut when Rob Pelinka re-signed Dwight Howard for his third stint in the Gold and Purple, leaving the former four-time rebounding champion a man without an obvious landing spot.

Would he sign with the Boston Celtics? No, they traded for Al Horford. How about the Houston Rockets? They sign-and-traded for Daniel Theis. Cleveland? Detroit? Goodness, could you imagine the PR?

Enter Doc Rivers, who had reportedly been interested in coaching Drummond since they became friends when the latter was still in high school.

When the Philadelphia 76ers signed Andre Drummond to a one-year, $2.56 million deal – the least he’s ever been paid as a pro to play professional basketball – Joel Embiid buried the hatchet with his former on-court foe, and the rest, as they say, is history. While it feels inevitable that some other team, maybe the ones previously mentioned, will swoop in and sign Drummond when his contract comes to an end, for now, the Sixers have one of the best rebounders to ever do it putting in work for 22 minutes of action a night and that, my friends, is very cool.