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Andre Drummond has undergone perhaps one of the most dramatic changes in this offseason. From having surgery to fix a deviated septum to improve his breathing, brand new diet and conditioning plan to stay on the court longer and fixing by far the most apparent weakness in his game: free-throw shooting.
“It's like night and day,” Drummond told ESPN's Nick Friedell. “It's been an exciting process for me to see the progress that I've put in over the years, the time that I've spent, countless hours in the gym shooting free throws. Working on mechanics, working on the mental aspect, so to see the work that I've put in come out to light is exciting that it's finally here.”
Drummond has gone from a woeful 38.6 percent from the stripe last season to a healthy 63.8 percent this season, a massive 25.2 percent difference in accuracy which has spelled nothing but good things for him and the 8-3 Detroit Pistons.
To make this change possible, the 6-foot-11 center went back to trainer Idan Ravin, the man who helped him prepare for the 2012 NBA Draft.
Article Continues Below“I called him up after the season,” Drummond said. “I told him that I think it's time to go back to the basics, go back to what got me to where I'm at. We really put a lot of work in. I worked out with him for the first half of the summer. Really on the conditioning part of game — the free throws, obviously, and just the whole mental aspect of the game.”
Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to overcome was the mental barrier of going to the line, given how he shied away from contact last season, deterring his confidence and all-around game close to the rim.
“We have to scrap all the stuff that you've been told,” Ravin told Drummond. “All the stuff that you've been doing. And that's a lot because it's like asking someone to change their handwriting, their signature. Even if they have a messy signature, it's just something that they've done for a very, very long time.”
“The focus wasn't [let's] make you a better free throw shooter. The focus was let's make you a better player. The free throw shooting was just a byproduct of everything else. We didn't spend 400 hours working on free throws. We spent thousands of hours on working on becoming a better player. We weren't doing Five Star basketball 1985 form shooting.”
