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Drummond’s hidden stats helping Pistons as much as his gaudy rebound numbers

The box scores spoke volumes about Andre Drummond’s contributions to two weekend Pistons wins, but they didn’t tell nearly the full story.

Drummond averaged 16 points and 21.5 rebounds as they rolled over Orlando and Milwaukee by an average margin of 20.5 points. But Stan Van Gundy’s sleep patterns will be aided more by all the other things the box score doesn’t reflect.

Like the bone-jarring screens he set. The way he followed up by running hard to the rim, pulling defenders to him magnetically and creating space for ballhandlers and shooters to get to the basket or find desirable open shooting areas. The extra half-step executed an extra half-second sooner to scare away dribble penetration. The compressed window between grabbing a defensive rebound and finding Ish Smith to ignite an effective transition game.

“He’s just been really willing offensively to give himself up,” Van Gundy said after Sunday’s 98-83 win over Milwaukee. “He knows the attention he draws and he’s been willing to do that. That’s frustrating, at times, but he’s still getting shots. A lot of ’em are offensive rebounds; I understand that, but he’s still getting the ball down there and getting a chance to score. But it’s not an easy way to play. It’s a way to play when you’re all about winning and that’s what he’s been.”

Maybe it’s the security that comes with having a five-year contract for a reported $127 million. Maybe it’s having the same head coach for two-plus seasons after blowing through three in his first three NBA years. Maybe it’s simply the value of experience and maturity. And, probably, it’s the convergence of all of those factors and a few others, like having a talented core around him that allows him to see the benefit of his sacrifices.

“I’ve built a reputation in this league where you can’t leave me open on the roll,” Drummond said. “So if I do roll to the basket, the whole team’s going to come in. It’s going to leave our 3-point shooters open.”

That all means there aren’t likely to be as many highlight clips of him receiving lob passes for forceful dunks as there were in the early days, when there wasn’t much of a book on him. But there should be a whole lot more favorable scoring chances for his teammates as defenses pay the price for choosing to eliminate the certainty of two points on a Drummond dunk at the risk of ceding shots NBA players make with deadly efficiency.

“When he sets a screen and rolls, everybody’s so damn worried about him getting the ball back on the lob that the big guy just goes back to him and it opens up lanes to go to the basket,” Van Gundy said. “They don’t really want to come and help as much because either we throw the lob to him or he’s cleaning it up on the boards.”

There’s more to Drummond’s game, more than ever, besides the hustle and energy plays that help him rack up rebounds and put-backs while creating desirable scoring chances for those around him. His productive summer’s work has been readily evident already, Drummond scoring several baskets with explosive face-up post moves to go with his growing arsenal of back-to-the-basket options.

“That’s one of the biggest things I worked on this summer, attacking from the face up,” he said. “I’m a lot quicker than most of the bigs in the league and I use it to my advantage and it’s been working really well.”

He’ll get those scoring chances. His teammates are conscious of funneling the ball to him in the post, their confidence in his ability to make something good happen growing with his.

“He’s confident,” Tobias Harris said. “We know we can throw him the ball down there and he’s expecting the basketball there. He’s working his butt off every single day and you can see that his confidence in the way he’s playing is leading to a lot of those types of situations.”

He’ll also score here and there through his more consistent running hard in transition with teammates gladly looking to feed him with a head of steam, as Jon Leuer did in Sunday’s win for a rousing slam dunk.

But Van Gundy will be most pleased if Drummond continues to excel at all those things in which the box score stays silent in its telling.

“A lot of our offensive performance is what he brings if he’s playing the way we need him to play,” he said. “He needs to understand that and our team needs to understand that. He needs to appreciate what he’s bringing to our team in those situations and so do our players.”

The message seems to have sunk in all around so far.