When a team's star player gets into foul trouble, the head coach usually takes him out of the game early or tells him to play conservatively on defense. Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey, however, is going to do the exact opposite with center Andre Drummond.
The Pistons are 2-0 on the young season, but Casey says Drummond played soft on defense in the season opener against the Brooklyn Nets after the All-Star big man picked up his fourth foul. The reigning Coach of the Year wants his defensive stalwart to have the same aggressive mindset he usually has on defense, even if he's in foul trouble, via Rob Beard of The Detroit News:
“They’re tick-tack fouls, but then you can’t stop playing and give up layups at the rim,” Casey said. “That’s the thing when he got his fourth — he got soft at the rim and they had 23 layups.
“He’s got to be more physical at the rim, go vertical and still challenge shots at the rim. That’s very important. Even though you have three or four fouls, you still have to give yourself up and protect the rim. We didn’t do a good job of that.
“That’s his next step, to learn how to play with fouls and not get the cheap fouls early and still play aggressive. Those are the challenges he has as a young big man, to play early without fouling.”
Through the first two games, Drummond is averaging a double-double. The 25-year-old is scoring 17.0 points and grabbing 16.5 rebounds per game. But as Casey says, Drummond needs to be the defensive anchor for the Pistons every night, and he can't allow his foul troubles to affect his play on that end of the floor.
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