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Rumor Central: After nose surgery, Andre Drummond to work on his game in offseason

Detroit Pistons starting center Andre Drummond has been dealing with a breathing issue in his left nostril since the 2012-13 season and recently had surgery to fix the problem.

"Obviously, you need both nostrils to play but I'm hardheaded so I didn't want to do it at the time," Drummond told MLive.com. "I didn't feel like it was the right time to do it so I just figured a different way until I got a chance to do it so that's how I played for four years. I made it work.

"I didn't do that bad. I still was an All-Star, I still was All-NBA, I still made certain things work but this season was probably my toughest breathing year for me."

Drummond averaged 13.6 points, 13.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 81 appearances this season. While those are good numbers, Drummond's defense was not as strong in 2016-17 as it has been in the past and as usual he struggled at the free-throw line. Now that Drummond's breathing is back to normal, he's planning to work on his game-conditioning and low-post skills during the summer.

"We took a step back from the year before and I'm just really excited for the upcoming season," Drummond said. "It's pretty much like a fresh start with a whole new arena, a whole new demographic of where we're playing and I'm really excited for that. I'm really looking forward to it."

Drummond, if he picks up his 2020-21 player option, is set to make $105 million over the next four years.

-- Nick Silva

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