In The Latest Example Of NBA Players Not Living On Planet Earth, Andre Drummond Claims He's Both A Hall Of Fame Player And The Greatest Rebounder Ever

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Now that we live in an era where it seems like every NBA player either has their own podcast or is a guest on a pod, as a result, we oftentimes get some pretty outrageous quotes. Sometimes they come from players that you wouldn't expect, which I imagine is the case when it comes to Andre Drummond talking about his HOF chances

Alright, a few things here. As with any player who makes a claim like this, I'm willing to look at their case. Andre Drummond is another one of those guys who is most likely going to fall into the Hall Of Very Good vs Hall Of Fame debate, so let's have a look at his resume

- 2x All Star

- 1x All NBA

- All Rookie

- 4x REB champ

Now not everything he said in that clip is outrageous. Drummond is for sure one of the better rebounders the NBA has ever seen. A career average of 12.7 a game, Drummond is 47th all time in rebounding and 13th all time in career average. In terms of REB%, Drummond's 24.9% is legitimately the best percentage in league history so at least there's that. Does this make him the greatest rebounder ever though? That's where I'm going to have to tell Drummond to pump the breaks a little bit. Wilt and Bill Russell still exist (RIPIP). They are the only two players in NBA history with over 20,000 career rebounds which at the moment is over 2x what Drummond has so let's not get disrespectful. 

What's mainly going to work against Drummond in terms of his HOF case is that to make it, you need to do more than just one thing. Especially when you're only just inside the top 50 at that one thing you're known for. This is where he's going to run into that Hall Of Very Good problem. While it's not the end-all be-all, we can take a look at his HOF probability from Basketball Reference to get an idea of how close he actually is and in the clip he mentioned he's top 20 which I imagine he meant of current players. So what's his percentage?

1.9%

That 1.9% has him 33rd among active players, right in between Bradley Beal (2.2%) and Khris Middleton (1.7%). Two more players who are probably first ballot Hall Of Very Good guys. If you're curious, DeMar DeRozan is currently 20th at 42%, and he's a guy who is going to most likely flirst with over 25,000 points which would have him close to the mid 20s all time, something that's been a lock for a HOF spot. As you can see there's a pretty big difference between the 20th percentage and Drummond's.

So after laying it all out and looking at the body of work, I'm sorry to say I have to disagree with Andre Drummond here. Not totally, I'm with him if he wants to say he's one of the most effective rebounders in the league, but that's where it stops. Not the greatest rebounder ever, and not a HOFer barring something absolutely crazy from here on out. Sadly, I don't see that happening.