Disrespect is contagious. Only a few days after Chris Paul decided to wave at Andre Roberson, Andre got his back. Except it was Andre Drummond.
Pictured above is Andre Drummond just kind of hanging out and not contesting a shot. I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of Drummond’s life is spent not contesting shots. There are other things that happen like eating, or sleeping, or debating whether or not to dismantle the decaying shrine to Jennette McCurdy he keeps in his third walk-in closet. These things take time, and contesting shots just don’t fit.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes shot contesting is a necessary activity. For example, contesting shots is a very good thing to do in a professional basketball game. It usually means that the shooter has less of a chance of making a basket. The other team scoring fewer points than you is good, after all.
So why did this happen?
I have a theory. I believe that Andre Drummond felt that he didn’t need to show at Jonas Valanciunas to feel like the shot was going to be unlikely to go in. As it turns out he was right.
This was a risky proposition. Valanciunas was a 50 percent 3-point shooter last year. That’d be near the top of the league in a world where only taking two attempts was considered a lot. In the weird world we live in, though, two shots is considered a “small sample size,” whatever that means.
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This is disrespect, and it’s not the first time this happened. Chris Paul did a similar waving motion toward Andre Roberson earlier in the preseason. He even went as far as vocalize a “Hell naw.” Drummond just did a slight, dismissive head tilt. It’s not quite on the same level, but that’s hard to say. Two examples is a small sample size, after all.