Leon Rose’s latest center moves tell you plenty about how the Knicks view Andre Drummond.
After winning the NBA championship in June, New York did not sit still. Rose brought back most of the roster despite almost no cap room, kept the team’s most promising young project in Mo Diawara, and added sharpshooter Tyler Nickel after a round of the front office’s usual draft-day maneuvering. The organization was reportedly just as disappointed as fans when James Dolan said the second apron was a bridge too far, and the fallout included Mitchell Robinson’s exit and Drummond’s quick arrival.
Since then, Rose has also brought in Drew Eubanks and James Wiseman as tryout players, but those additions say as much about the market as they do about the depth chart. New York is clearly treating backup center as a position to patch together within a tight budget, and Drummond sits at the center of that plan.
One reason is simple: his game gives the Knicks something their backup bigs haven’t offered much of this decade. Nerlens Noel, Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson combined to attempt 128 threes across 25 seasons.
Drummond took 90 last year alone. If he repeats that kind of shooting, he’ll land right around league average.
If he does it on even more volume - something the 2027 Knicks may care more about than the 2026 76ers - it would add another wrinkle to an already elite offense.
Still, the real appeal isn’t the jumper. Drummond remains one of the most productive defensive rebounders of his era, even if some of those numbers are alleged to be inflated because he was so focused on his rebounding totals that he would pass up contests in hopes of cleaning up the miss instead.
Even with that reputation attached, his production in Philadelphia last season stood out. His defensive rebounding percentage was in the same neighborhood as Karl-Anthony Towns, and his offensive rebounding percentage was just two-tenths of a point behind league leader Donovan Clingan. Those are the kinds of numbers that make the Knicks comfortable with him as their backup center.
There’s also a small edge that comes from where Drummond played. NFL teams have long valued the idea of signing a player from a division rival not just for talent, but for whatever useful intelligence they may have picked up behind enemy lines.
The Sixers look very different now than they did when the Knicks swept them in May, but Drummond spent a year with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and Nick Nurse. If that gives New York even one useful detail, it’s a bonus.
For now, the Knicks are still shopping in the same price range for help behind their starters. If Miles McBride is traded for a big man, it will still be for someone in that tier.
But the broader picture is already clear: Rose had to split up the KAT-and-Mitch pairing, and he replaced it with a center whose game borrows from both. That won’t stop him from chasing the final piece, either.
He’ll keep moving heaven and earth for the third and last part of the pivot puzzle.
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Brunsons Knicks Reaction Made This Celtics Departure Feel Personal
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Andre Drummond is now part of that answer, and Brunson sounded encouraged by what the veteran can bring to the mix. The Knicks do not have to wait long for the first test of the transition, either, with early-season matchups looming against the 76ers and Celtics, giving Drummond an immediate chance to settle in and see how New Yorks reshaped big-man group holds up against familiar competition. [Read more 🡒]