Summary
Drummond is not the lob threat that he was when he was younger, and those that compared him to Dwight Howard early in his career were always overstating Drummond's athleticism. He also never became the defensive presence that many had hoped, as his instincts on that end aren't good enough to make him a great rim protector.

Drummond has always been a high-volume rebounder, although there has been some debate about the value of his rebounding. There were many seasons in which his team rebounded better when Drummond was off the court. The thinking there is that it doesn't matter who gets the rebound, as long as your team does, so certain players like the Lopez brothers and Steven Adams, who box out their man and let their teammates grab rebounds, are actually more valuable than guys like Drummond, who mostly grab uncontested rebounds.

However, Drummond has also been a really good offensive rebounder, which is almost always a positive as it's hard to "steal" offensive rebounds from teammates. He led the league in both defensive and offensive rebounding rate in '23-'24. He's a legitimate big body that can bully smaller players down low, and has nice touch around the rim.

While he isn't the best rim protector, his size alone can be helpful at times. He posted the lowest block rate of his career in '22-'23, which could be a sign of aging, and that has even decreased thus far in '23-'24. However, he continues to post a really high steal rate, which he has done for most of his career.

Drummond actually has some off-the-dribble ability, although he can sometimes get a little too carried away with that. While he's not exactly Nikola Jokic, he does have some passing ability from the high-post. Drummond also has the ability to make a dribble or two as the roll man and make a play toward the rim, as opposed to some centers who can't do anything except catch and go up with the ball.

Drummond did not have a great season for the Bulls in '22-'23, playing a career low 12.4 minutes per game and sometimes even losing back-up center minutes to Derrick Jones, Jr. when the Bulls wanted to go with a smaller option. He was better in '23-'24, even playing better than starter Nikola Vucevic at times, or even starting next to him in some jumbo lineups. Drummond can still be a decent back-up center, and is probably your classic veteran minimum guy going forward, but I also wouldn
 
Cap Considerations
Drummond will be an unrestricted free agent with a $4.4 million cap hold and Early Bird rights. Since the Bulls will most likely be operating over the salary cap, they will retain Drummond's Early Bird rights until he is re-signed or signs elsewhere. The Bulls could offer Drummond a starting salary of up to 5% more than the average salary (likely around $13 million) using the Early Bird exception, which will be more than enough to retain him. 

Depending on how close the Bulls are to the luxury tax after free agency, if Drummond is brought back by the Bulls on a multi-year contract above the minimum, they could benefit from frontloading his contract, as it could give them additional flexibility in the future. 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Drummond as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also possible that Drummond only gets minimum offers.