After losing Mitchell Robinson in free agency, and extending the contracts of Mohamed Diawara, Jose Alvarado, and Landry Shamet, the defending NBA Champion New York Knicks have made their first offseason addition.
Center Andre Drummond has signed with the Knicks on a one-year, $3.9 million deal, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. The reporter added that the Mount Vernon, NY native had interest from several other squads, but obviously ultimately chose to sign with his "hometown" squad.
The fact of the matter is that the Knicks needed a backup center, badly, and Drummond is certainly serviceable. Defensive estimated plus-minus, a metric provided by Dunks & Threes and relied on by front offices across the NBA, truly only does a solid job of capturing centers' impact; players at other positions are typically just not impactful enough on a team's defense to quantify with just one statistic.
Defensively, Drummond graded out in the NBA's 74th percentile last season for the Philadelphia 76ers. Anyone who's watched him play knows that he excels at rebounding. And Mike Brown might just be the perfect coach to make the most of his offensive skillset.
Drummond signing addresses a key need for Knicks' title defense
Last offseason, the Knicks' biggest addition was a free agent big man who last played for the 76ers. Guerschon Yabusele, fresh off of a career season and special set of contributions in the Olympic Games, seemed like the perfect addition for a coach, in Brown, who values offensive versatility.
The big man wound up being a poor fit for Brown's system, unable to hang defensively as a power forward and lacking the opportunity to play small-ball center given that Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson were ahead of him on that part of the depth chart.
Unlike Yabusele, though, Drummond brings a pair of skillsets in his signature rebounding and good-enough defense that can help him stick as the Knicks' backup big.
Drummond also brings a skillset to the table that Brown, particularly, might be able to tap into next season. The Athletic's James L. Edwards III, who covered Drummond on the Detroit Pistons, tweeted in the wake of the Knicks' Drummond signing that his playmaking ability might be something Brown winds up leaning on.
Edwards III wrote online that former Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy put Drummond in a position to make plays for his teammates, and that the center known for his rebounding excelled.
It would certainly be on-brand for Brown to find success with Drummond in a similar role, especially if the Knicks continue to lean on Towns as a control-tower playmaker from the top of the key throughout the 2027 regular season.
All in all, the Knicks may very well decide to address the center position before the 2027 trade deadline with some sort of move, signing, or general pivot. But Drummond can certainly get the job done, for now.
If Brown is able to make the most out of his offensive game, though, they might not need someone else at all. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for the coach that just helped Towns overcome more than a decade's worth of poor media coverage and false narratives.
Add us as a preferred source on Google