Cleveland Cavaliers center Andre Drummond has not yet made a decision on whether to opt in to his contract, he said in an exclusive interview with Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
“I’m just focusing on what I can worry about. Working on my game,” Drummond said. “Right now, just worrying about what’s happening with the next couple of months, before the season, whenever it’s time to start, and when that time does come to make that decision everybody will know.
“Right now, I’m a Cleveland Cavalier. In terms of extending, we will find that out when the time comes around.”
Fedor reported earlier in the week that Drummond and the Cavs have been talking extension, but that the sides are far apart.
Drummond’s player option is worth $28.75 million. He will enter free agency if he declines the option, and while he is unlikely to make that amount in one year somewhere else, he could receive a longer deal from a team with cap room.
His latest comments are a lot different than what he told ESPN back in late June.
“Yeah, it’s going to be hard to give up, so you can count on me being in Cleveland still,” Drummond said on Le Batard & Friends. “I definitely will be in Cleveland.”
After spending more than seven years with the Detroit Pistons, Drummond appeared in just eight games with the Cavs before the NBA suspended play. He averaged 17.7 points and a league-leading 15.2 rebounds for the season.
“I still haven’t thought much about what’s going to go on with free agency,” he told Fedor. “I’m in close communication with my agent, so we will start to have those conversations relatively soon.
“I’m just letting things play out the way they’re supposed to play out and when that time comes, when we need to make a decision, I will have my answer ready.”
The NBA free agent period is expected to begin in late November or early December.
