3 Ways the Knicks Can Hide Andre Drummond's Flaws

The Knicks shouldn't be looking at Andre Drummond as a Mitchell Robinson replacement. Robinson, even with his historic free throw woes, is a significantly better player. The free agency market is proof that a lot of teams believe the same thing.

What New York can do, though, is learn from its many years with Robinson to help cover up some of Drummond's weakness while maximizing his strengths.

How Knicks can get the most out of Andre Drummond

Tactical lineups on defense

Drummond's defense is a problem. His lack of lateral mobility is something that will be hard to coach or scheme around against great offensive teams. And he's not as much of a physical presence in the paint, where Robinson thrived on banging bodies with the likes of Joel Embiid and other top centers.

But playing Drummond next to a combination of Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Deuce McBride, and/or Landry Shamet should help on that side of the ball. New York certainly has the depth to mix and match units at times, especially when there's a particularly troublesome matchup where Drummond's deficiencies need to be covered up.

Changing his rebounding habits

One thing both Drummond and Robinson have is their elite offensive rebounding ability. But they greatly differ in what they do with said rebound.

Robinson went up for a putback (a field goal within three seconds of securing an offensive rebound) on with a 44.4% frequency and averaged 1.01 points per possession.

Drummond, on the other hand, went up for a putback on just 34.5% of his offensive rebounds for a measly 0.85 points per possession. Those are pretty low numbers for a player who lives close to the rim. But this could be turned into a positive.

Much like the Knicks ended up doing with Robinson, they could focus on coaching Drummond to convert his putback attempts into kick outs. Robinson proved that you don't necessarily need to be a the most skilled passer to find teammates off of offensive rebounds.

Instilling that as a priority, and further lowering Drummond's putback frequency, could help offset some of his finishing weaknesses around the rim.

Limit Drummond's touches

Something that the 76ers did was allow Drummond to hold on to the ball for more than he should've. Last season, he took three or more dribbles of 4.5% of his plays. That's not a huge amount. But it's a lot more than the 0.5% frequency that Robinson did it.

Drummond also shot just 17-47 on field goal attempts where he had two to six seconds of six time. Completely eliminating those kinds of possessions will matter against good teams. And it isn't just because of the individual shot attempts.

Whether it's Drummond, Robinson, or any other non-skilled big, asking them to hold the ball or dribble for an extended portion is foolish.

With every second, the likelihood that the possession inevitably ends in a bad shot or even worse, a turnover, goes up. And every possession that ends poorly is an opportunity taken away from the extremely talented core that is the Knicks' offense.

This postseason showed New York just how important every single possession can be in high-leverage moments, and wasting them on plays where Drummond holds the ball will come back to haunt them in close games.

A lot of Drummond's limitations on offense could be boiled down to him sometimes doing more than he should. In the past, the big man has at times struggled to stay within his game.

With Jalen Brunson and Jose Alvarado running the offense, plus Mike Brown and his coaching staff coming fresh off of a dominant championship run, the hope is that they can simplify things for him. Keep Drummond's job easy.

Set hard screens, and finish easy plays. If the shot isn't immediately there, kick it out. And if he grabs an offensive rebound and doesn't have a quick and easy putback attempt, find an open teammate.

He'll never replicate Robinson's defensive impact, but if the Knicks can learn from other teams' past mistakes and keep him disciplined, he should be serviceable until at least the trade deadline, where they could go after another premium name.