Andre Drummond Has Brilliant First Half Off The Bench

New York Knicks center and veteran Andre Drummond got off the bench with a perfect start to his 15th NBA season. He recorded the team’s third-fastest double-double since the 1996-97 season.

Drummond needed just 14 minutes to score 10 points and grab 11 rebounds.

Drummond heard chants from the New York faithful, even though it is just his first season with the team.

Unfortunately, the run stopped there. Drummond only scored two more points in the second half and ran out of gas as the Knicks began to leak oil and would end up losing to LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers by a score of 106-100.

He still grabbed three more rebounds for a game-high 14 total. He had two blocks and one steal to cap his stat sheet.

“I thought that he was really, really, really good on both ends of the floor during the first half,” said head coach Mike Brown. Drummond came in relief of big man Karl-Anthony Towns, who has also been in the news recently with the pausing of his contract negotiations, which suggests a trade could end up coming. With Drummond in his 15th season, the Knicks probably won’t look to him as their number-one option regardless.

Drummond averaged 6.4 points and 8.4 rebounds last year, but an even bigger average to look for is the minutes. He played 24 minutes last night and averaged 19.5 last year. Brown said that he still has to see how Drummond’s minutes will look.

Based on Brown’s comments, he likely won’t average 24 minutes this season, and his extended minutes last night came from earning them with his first-half performance.

Drummond and the Knicks return Friday in Boston to face the Celtics.