NEW YORK – As the Sixers put the finishing touches on their preparation ahead of Friday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, an assistant coach started rebounding for players at morning shootaround.
“I saw a corner three go in,” the coach yelled with a smile. “It must be Drum!”
Indeed it was Andre Drummond, the 32-year-old center whose foray into the world of three-point shooting has excited some and confused others but amused all.
Drummond has made 10 of his 23 three-point attempts across the first 17 games of the 2025-26 campaign after never making more than five triples during any of the first 13 seasons of his NBA career.
“He wants to shoot that corner three despite all of the other years and what he’s been told,” Sixers forward Jabari Walker said on Wednesday. “Like, he looks for that shot. Seeing how he plays his game with confidence, doesn’t let anybody get in his head too much – you need that to be successful. I try to take that away from [being around] him.”
Drummond was one of the league’s foremost non-shooters for over a decade. In the first 13 years of his professional life, he shot a whopping 18-for-140 on three-point tries – good for a 12.9 three-point percentage. His 48.6 percentage on free throws was arguably even less inspiring.
Some might believe Drummond’s confidence presents more like hubris, and because of his poor track record as a shooter, Drummond’s preseason claim that he had added a three-point shot to his game was taken by many as an example of the latter.
Whatever word is used to describe it, Drummond’s self-belief is what enabled him to add a new layer to his game this deep into his career.
“That’s just how I am. That’s how I move,” Drummond said on Friday morning. “I walk around with my head up all the time, regardless of all the stuff, good, bad or in between. I try to be the same guy every day.”
About 12 hours later, Drummond proved he was true to his word. Two and a half hours prior, he had suffered what appeared to be a painful knee injury. The fall immediately forced Drummond into a wheelchair. But there he was after the game concluded, walking under his own power with a slight limp and a sleeve around his right leg. Drummond was injured, but his head was up. He was the same guy who joked around with reporters about his dog that morning. He smiled and nodded.
Drummond having any mobility soon after suffering what the Sixers called a sprain is a positive indication, but the team will hold its collective breath as it looks deeper into Drummond’s knee.
“It really sucks,” Tyrese Maxey said. “…We’re just going to pray for him and hope he gets back fast.”
Sources: 76ers center Andre Drummond has a hyperextended knee after a preliminary report. He was helped off the court in a wheel chair. Entering tonight, he’s averaged 10.9 points on 54% from the field and 44% on 3-pointers, 13.8 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in 8 starts this season. pic.twitter.com/1gCMLGYwj3
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) November 29, 2025
While many of the most memorable moments of Drummond’s revival have come as a three-point shooter, there has been much more driving a resurgent campaign for a player whose struggles last season were so pronounced that some thought he would be salary-dumped during the offseason.
As a result of his disappointing performance last season, Drummond entered this year’s training camp third on the depth chart behind not just Joel Embiid, but also Adem Bona, a player he has taken a significant interest in mentoring dating back to last year’s training camp. Regardless, Drummond figured to be a pivotal figure in the picture because of how often Embiid misses time. But Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has repeatedly admitted that he was never certain Drummond would get back to being an impactful player.
“I wasn’t sure, to be honest with you. I think that as a coaching staff you can only evaluate the body of work you’ve seen. And I was up front with him and told him that what I saw last year wasn’t going to cut it,” Nurse said on Wednesday. “…Bona beat him out through training camp, if Joel was playing he was third and he’d have to play his way out of that, and he’s done that. I give him credit. I think he’s worked hard, I think he’s in much better shape than he ever was last year. He’s getting to the basketball easier than he did a year ago. He goes through these stretches where he’s dominant on the defensive glass that we never really saw a year ago. So he’s picked it up, so he must have sensed it, and I give him credit for that.”
Drummond is one of the most prolific rebounders in NBA history – the greatest of all time in his own view – and his typical dominance eluded him there last season. Embiid has missed nine games in a row after already having multiple planned absences. Bona was stagnating before missing two weeks with a sprain. The Sixers were absolutely desperate for production in the middle.
Right on time, Drummond found what he could not muster a year ago. Predictably, it all started with his signature aggression on the boards.
“He obviously knows that’s a strength of his, and I think he plays to that. I think he really has some timing and just a sense. And, like, he really wants to go grab them,” Nurse said on Wednesday. “I mean, you can see him, sometimes he’ll knock down three of our own guys to get one. He wants that thing. I think he’s figured that out for a long time that, ‘Hey, I can make a living just rebounding.’ And I think he’s still doing that, but it’s just who he is and how he plays and he’s doing it at a high level right now.”
Drummond’s new teammates have marveled at his ability to swallow enormous numbers of rebounds in short spans. “I haven’t seen anything like this,” Dominick Barlow said on Monday, remarking that Drummond “grabs every board.” It is similar to a comment Walker made days later.
“He really has a gift,” Walker said. “I haven’t seen anybody else do it at that level.”
In addition to his surprising growth as a three-point shooter and not-that-surprising uptick in defensive rebounding, Drummond has been a far more mobile player in his second full season in Philadelphia. One of the key factors driving Drummond’s improved movement: his left big toe – which he injured last December, and was never quite right again even when he came back at multiple points during the season – finally healed.
“I started moving a little bit better, a little more freely,” Drummond said. “Just [focusing on] the stuff that I’m doing to keep my foot loose and keep my toe-strengthening workouts that I’ve been doing, too. So I feel great. Now, just continue to build on it.”
Drummond described the issue as something that hampered him physically and mentally.
“I’m not hesitating as much,” Drummond said. “On certain movements, I’d be afraid to push down on it, just being nervous that it’ll be painful. So I was very timid in those first few games of the season, but now I’m just playing through it and I feel great.”
He estimated that it took him about five games to feel like he was back to his normal self, even though Drummond did all he could to attack a critical offseason. Improved eating habits and more workouts helped Drummond shed considerable weight – Nurse estimated it was about 20 pounds – all while he performed “toe yoga” and other exercises to get back to full strength in the aftermath of his injury.
Friday morning was the first time Drummond talked about it in any depth. It felt that injury issues were finally in his rearview mirror.
Basketball can be cruel.
Maybe Drummond going down under the basket in Brooklyn will prove to be a worse visual than anything else. But he could have another lengthy rehab process and recovery ahead of him. It would be a devastating blow for a team that was already hurting inside.
“It’s tough. Dre, I feel like, has been awesome this year,” Paul George said. “…I don’t know the severity of it, but hopefully it wasn’t the case that mine was, because it’s a challenge. The hypertension is a challenge.”
The concern in the visitor’s locker room at Barclays Center was palpable. If Drummond’s injury does prove to be serious, he will need every bit of confidence he has. If not, the Sixers will breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Either way, Drummond will have his head up.
“Knowing who he is as a person, it just makes me even happier to witness [his success],” Walker said. “And he has so much more left in him.”
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