Knicks' Recent Moves Hint at Their Early Andre Drummond Feelings

Despite his team winning the NBA championship in June, Leon Rose didn’t rest any on his laurels after. He’s since brought most of the band back despite virtually zero cap room, retained the team’s most promising young project in Mo Diawara and acquired sharpshooter Tyler Nickel, who could end up on a two-way contract, after a series of his typically dizzying draft day deals.

The front office was reportedly as let down as the fans when James Dolan announced the second apron was a bridge too far. The result is that Mitchell Robinson departed, but he was quickly replaced by Andre Drummond.

Rose has since brought in Drew Eubanks and James Wiseman as tryout players, but those moves make clear the team their are as set at the backup center spot as any. And for good reason.

Knicks clearly have trust in Andre Drummond to lead their center depth

A commonality among New York’s backup bigs this decade has been their limited shooting range. In 25 seasons combined, Nerlens Noel, Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson attempted 128 threes.

Meanwhile, Drummond took 90 last year. If he shoots what he did last year he’ll be right around league average. If he does that on more attempts (something the 2027 Knicks may be more interested in than the 2026 76ers), it’d add one more element to what’s already one of the league’s elite offenses.

But the main reason Drummond is a Knick isn’t his shooting. He’s one of the most prolific defensive rebounders of his era, though those numbers are alleged to be somewhat inflated, that Drummond was so fixated on his rebounding numbers that he’d pass up contesting shots hoping there’d be a board to collect instead.

Nevertheless, last year in Philadelphia his defensive rebounding percentage was in the same neighborhood as Karl-Anthony Towns, while his offensive rebounding percentage was two-tenths of a point less than league-leader Donovan Clingan. Those are reasons the Knicks feel good about having him.

In addition to how he played, where he played could work in New York’s favor. You used to see it all the time in the NFL: signing a player from a division rival not only for their skills or to weaken that rival, but because that player had been behind enemy lines; they might know some small piece of intelligence that comes in handy against their former team.

Obviously the Sixers look far different now than when the Knicks swept them in May, but Drummond spent a year with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and Nick Nurse. If that yields even one nugget of help, that’s a bonus.

The Knicks are looking at Wiseman and Eubanks because that’s the job that needs staffing and that’s who they can afford. If they end up trading Miles McBride for a big man, it’ll still be one in that price range. It’s also because the Knicks have reasons for faith in Drummond as their secondary big.

Leon Rose was forced to split a perfect pair of fives in KAT and Mitch and managed to follow that up by adding someone whose game brings a lot of both of theirs. Not that that’ll slow Rose down any from moving heaven and earth in search of the third and final piece to their pivot puzzle.

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