Dennis Schröder is currently playing big with the Boston Celtics and is making the Celts’ offensive better. At the same time, his style of play also poses problems for the Celtics, who will even consider a trade from the German.
After a wild and eventful summer, Dennis Schröder has calmed down a bit. After “gambling” what was perhaps the biggest deal of his career, the German was mocked. In the end, it was the Boston Celtics who took pity on him and signed Schroeder to a year and $5.9 million.
On paper, this deal was and is an absolute win-win situation for both sides. The Celtics simply had nothing to lose and Schröder had the opportunity to restore his value on the big stage.
Due to the injury and the absence of Jaylen Brown, Schröder now plays a much larger role than he was intended to.
Dennis Schröder makes the Celtics offensive better
Since his first day in the Association, it’s pretty clear how Schröder’s game works. He is lightning fast, not afraid of contact under the basket and can (sometimes more or less) run hot from a distance. He also has an eye for free players and a dangerous floater. These strengths (we’ll come to the weaknesses later) are currently working in his favor with the Celtics.
Only eleven players in the league record more drives per game than Braunschweig (15.2), which he also completes with excellent odds (51.6 percent, 6th place in the league with at least 6 attempts per game). In doing so, he changes the rhythm of the Celtics offensive, which is also transferred to his teammates. Compared to the previous year, the Celts recorded almost five more drives per game, and Marcus Smart in particular has rarely been seen so aggressively to the basket.
At the same time, he expands his team’s offensive repertoire and makes it harder to calculate. Schroeder, along with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, is the only Celtic capable of creating effective isolation plays. While Tatum has been extremely inefficient this season (35.7 FG percent with 5 attempts per game) and usually relies entirely on his throw, Schröder prefers to move into the zone and pose problems for the bigs there.
If he then also hits his distance throw like last time against the Blazers (5/7 from Downtown) it becomes even more valuable. Normally Bigs dive into the pick’n’roll defense against Schröder because they are afraid of his drive. If they can’t afford that, Schröder’s team-mates automatically open up the gaps, which is why the 8 assists against Portland are not surprising.
Dennis Schröder: Finally arrived?
However, the Celtics are better if Schröder and the rest do not fall into isolation. “I have to make sure that everything is in motion and that we play fast. I can’t just dribble and wait for isolation. We’re best when we do things quickly,” said Schröder recently.
It is therefore not surprising that the lineup with Marcus Smart, Grant Williams, Tatum and Al Horford is by far the best lineup in the Celtics and one of the best in the league. Together with the four shooters and skilled passers on the field, the space for Schröder’s drives becomes even larger. He’s one of the better ringside guard finishers in the league (64.1 percent, around Ja Morant and DeMar DeRozan) and exploits that relentlessly night after night.
His teammates trust him and that gives Schröder a boost. While last season with the Lakers he often completely disappeared when he wasn’t in his game, this season he’s staying present and fighting on.
“I feel 100 percent comfortable in my current situation,” Schröder said MassLive and raved about the organization’s support and recognition: “It’s been great so far. That’s all I’ve wanted and I believe we can achieve something big here.”
However, the Celtics could soon have problems due to Schröder’s good performances.