Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond are two talented centers, both with their own issues and warts that prevent them from being put in the all-world category.
For Embiid — who’s a likely all-star — staying healthy is his only concern during this early season dominance. Drummond for his part is a great athlete and terrific rebounder, but rivals Shaquille O’Neal in free throw shooting madness.
Ahead of their Saturday night matchup — the two sensational big men shared strong, yet ironic insults, with some truth behind both.
“no disrespect, but he can’t shoot.”
So, you know, I just gotta worry about the defensive coverages that we have. As you’ve seen they run a lot of down screens, backside action, and he’s always the roller so he gets a lot of lobs and stuff, so as a team we gotta make sure that don’t happen often, and make sure we close out on shooters too.”
Drummond — who is here for the back and forth — responded the way everyone else does, question whether “The Process” is durable enough to talk his talk.
“I mean you can’t really have a conversation with a man who can’t play a back-to-back,” he said, per Fox Sports Detroit’s Johnny Kane. “I’ve been playing for six years and I’ve missed maybe 4-5 games. So when he can play a whole season without taking a rest, he can come talk to me.”
In Drummond’s defense — he’s only missed three games since the start of the 2013-14 season.
In what should be an electric matchup — Drummond is averaging 14.3 points, an NBA-leading 15.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.
Embiid — a likely All-Star — is averaging 22.9 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 blocks per game, on 49.3 percent shooting from the field.
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