Detroit Pistons giving Andre Drummond green light to shoot 3-pointers

Don't worry. Andre Drummond doesn't plan on hanging around the 3-point line very often.

The Detroit Pistons center will still focus on his offensive strengths — rolling to the rim, grabbing offensive rebounds and making power moves. He still can't hide his glee that all the time he's spent taking long-range shots in practice won't go to waste with Dwane Casey as head coach.

"The 3-point shot is something I've added six years ago," he said during the team's annual media day at Little Caesars Arena on Monday. "I just never had a coach that allowed to me to shoot it. It's something I've worked on consistently for a long time, so I guess now is my time to really showcase it."

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He's not joking about practicing them. According to his estimate, he takes "at least a thousand" shots behind the 3-point line per day. He's made an occasional halfcourt heave at the end of quarters and tossed up some threes out of desperation with the shot clock winding down. This is the first time he's been given the privilege of taking them intentionally.

"Everybody, I know, is looking at me like I'm crazy," Casey said.

It's a simple matter of mathematics. The game has moved away from mid-range jumpers and long two-point tries. Deep shots and drives to the baskets are now emphasized throughout the league. 

"It's about spacing, it's about taking advantage of the analytical game," Casey said. "I learned that the hard way but it does open up the floor. Two threes, three threes a game is not out of the realm of possibility for Andre. You knock one down, it's going open up spacing for everyone else."

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Encouraging big men to let it fly has become all the rage. A prime example is Milwaukee center Brook Lopez. In the first eight years of his career, the 7-foot Lopez made three 3-pointers. Over the past two seasons, Lopez has fired up 712 shots behind the line and made a respectable 34.5 percent of them.

In his last season as Toronto's head coach, Casey gave the green light to 7-footer Jonas Valanciunas. After attempting just four 3-pointers in his first five seasons, Valanciunas took 74 3-point shots and made 40.5 percent.

A similar amount of attempts what Casey envisions for Drummond.

"That's why it doesn't bother me whatsoever to give him that freedom," Casey said. "Is he going to become Reggie Miller? No. Or Ray Allen? No."

But Drummond, who is 5-for-30 on all shot attempts beyond the arc in his career, can give defenses something else to think about if he can emulate what Valanciunas did last season.

"It's not something (where) I'm just going to start jacking up randomly," he said. "There are going to be opportunity threes. He's given me the green light to shoot it. If somebody backs up off me, I'm going to shoot it."

Frontcourt partner Blake Griffin has evolved into a "stretch four" over the past two seasons. Griffin never made more than 12 3-pointers in a season during his first six years in the league. Griffin attempted 113 during the 2016-17 campaign (making 33.6 percent), then nearly tripled that figure despite playing three fewer games last season. He took 322 3-pointers (5.6 per game) and made 34.5 percent.

Griffin won't mind seeing Drummond getting into the act, as long as he does it judiciously.

"We still want to use Dre to his strengths because he's one of the most dominant centers, one of the best finishers, one of the best rebounders," Griffin said. "So it would be doing him a disservice to keep him away from the rim and doing the things he does best. But I love it that Coach Casey is giving so many guys the freedom and confidence to do those things. I think it will help. That said, we still have to play within the parameters of our offense."

Drummond made a dramatic improvement last season with his free-throw shooting, going from an abominable 38.6 percent two seasons ago to 60.5 percent. It's still a leap of faith to think Drummond will be close to the league average from 25 feet out if he's struggled throughout his career making uncontested 15-footers.

If Drummond's claim that he makes approximately 40 percent of his threes in team workouts — "contested, pullups, corner threes," — perhaps fans won't cringe he takes them in an actual game.

"I'm shooting it really well," he said.