The Golden State Warriors built something during the mid-2010s that the league had never quite seen before. Stephen Curry was already rewriting the rulebook on perimeter scoring when the franchise added Kevin Durant ahead of the 2016-17 season. What followed was three straight Finals appearances and back-to-back championships.
For opposing players, facing that roster was a different kind of challenge. The pace. The spacing. The shooting from every position on the floor. Teams that were built around traditional basketball principles found themselves scrambling to keep up.
For centers in particular, those Warriors teams posed a problem that went beyond game planning.
Drummond Opens Up on Facing Curry and Durant
Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty ImagesSixers big man Andre Drummond.
Andre Drummond did not dress it up. Appearing on N3on’s YouTube channel this week, the two-time All-Star center was direct about what it felt like to face Golden State during that era.
“I hated playing them,” Drummond said, adding that he would go to bed a full day early just to prepare for those matchups.
That says everything about the mental weight those games carried. This wasn’t just another opponent on the schedule. For Drummond and the Detroit Pistons, a Warriors game meant bracing for something the league hadn’t fully figured out how to stop.
What the Curry-Durant Era Did to the NBA
GettyKevin Durant and Steph Curry take the court together in a game for the Golden State Warriors.
Drummond’s frustration wasn’t personal. It was structural. The Warriors didn’t just beat opposing centers. They made the position feel like a liability.
The floor spacing Curry and Durant created forced big men to either step outside and guard perimeter players or watch their team get picked apart in switches. Centers who couldn’t shoot the three found themselves marginalized, their traditional strengths neutralized by a system built around pace and space. Drummond saw it play out across the league in real time.
The shift reshaped roster construction at every level. Teams that had built around dominant interior presences suddenly found themselves retooling. The ones that couldn’t adapt faded. The ones that did survive were never quite the same.
Where Drummond Stands Now
Drummond enters this summer as an unrestricted free agent after his two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers runs its course. At 32, he has made his case that he can still rebound, defend, and hold up against elite frontcourt talent.
The irony is not lost. The Warriors helped push traditional centers toward the margins, and Drummond now enters free agency in a league that still reflects much of what Golden State helped build.
Final Word
The Curry-Durant pairing changed the NBA in ways that are still visible today. The centers who survived that era found ways to adapt. The ones who didn’t became cautionary tales about how quickly the game can move on.
Drummond was good enough to stick around. That version of the Warriors made sure it was never easy.
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