Sixers Add Lakers Big Man, 2x All-Star on 1-Year Deal: Report

Less than 24 hours after losing their backup center to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Philadelphia 76ers appear to have found a new man for the job.

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According to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice, the deal is for the veteran-minimum.

The 6-foot-10, 279-pound big man turns 28 in one week and is coming off of a 46-game split season (all of them starts) between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lakers. Drummond’s overall numbers last season included averages of 14.9 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks per contest in 27.0 minutes per game.

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Twitter Reacts to the Deal With Drummond

The craziness of the Drummond deal was not lost on basketball fans and analysts on social media. With Howard just having left the team for L.A. the day before, and then Philadelphia picking up the Lakers center on Tuesday, the wild circumstances surrounding the agreement were just beginning.

And of course, plenty of folks were quick to bring up Drummond and Joel Embiid’s long-standing rivalry.

With Drummond now Embiid’s understudy, things in Philadelphia this summer will get interesting very fast.

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What Will Drummond Bring to the Sixers?

Drummond is actually a very similar type of player to Howard. While the latter is a future Hall-of-Famer and the former’s career has gone downhill a bit since making his most recent All-Star team with the Pistons in 2018, both guys, in their prime, could score in bunches and racked up rebounds like few others. Although his most recent season was his first in four years where he failed to average 15 points, Drummond has still posted double-figures in scoring every season since his rookie year in 2012-2013.

Like Howard, Drummond is a menace down low on defense and on both ends of the glass, securing all four of his rebounding titles within five seasons from 2016 through 2020, while averaging 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals over his 645 career games. Where Drummond has struggled mightily is going to sound familiar to Sixers fans though, as the former UConn Huskie has always struggled from the free throw line.

Drummond’s 60% success rate from the charity stripe last season was actually the second-best mark of his career, after shooting 60.5% from the line in the 2017-2018 campaign.

Sixers fans will hope that Drummond doesn’t make these types of Shaqtin’ a Fool moments the norm once he starts suiting up for head coach Doc Rivers.

With Howard gone, the only other center listed on the Sixers roster would have been rookie Charles Bassey, so at the very least, Drummond will give the team solid depth at the position.

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