Dennis Schröder
Brooklyn Nets

Player Facts

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 172lbs.

Wingspan: 6'7.75"

Date of Birth: Sept. 15, 1993
College Experience: N/A

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 10
Physical Strength: 5
Positional Size: 7
Positional Wingspan: 8
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 8
Three-Point Scoring: 6
Dribbling: 8
Passing: 7
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 4
Rebounding: 4

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Pure Speed

> Solo Shot Creation

> Finishing Inside

> Pitch-and-Dash

> Screen Usage

> Other Offensive Competencies

> Scrappy Defense

> Mediocre Floater Touch

> Off-the-Dribble Shooting Struggles

> Playmaking that Doesn't Stack Up

> Positional Rigidity on D

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of Smart Highlights & Z. Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Dennis Schroder is a 6'3" guard who derives from Braunschweig, Germany. Speed is at the center of all that he does on both sides of the court. His first-step burst is insane. The scoring-minded Schroder also plays with an edge and a will to win that you love to see in a guard.

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Pure Speed

Expectedly, Dennis is an absolute blur in the open court with or without the ball. In fact, he scored a productive 147 points off turnovers in 64 2021-2022 games. As a nominal point guard, he sets up teammates running hard as well.

Schroder expertly probes the defense, patiently waiting for a chance to penetrate. He's extremely dangerous on the perimeter for the opposition. That crazy acceleration means that Dennis's man must be fully keyed in on him, and potential help defenders mindful as well.

Outside of just his raw speed, Schroder has tons of wiggle to his game. He understands the power of speed changes, especially when his max speed is as high as it is. The German guard's proficient ball skills fully unlock his zip and allow him to get to his spots at will.

Solo Shot Creation

The iso experience is there from his time as a Hawk and many instances commanding second units. He goes from facing one sideline to violently crossing the ball over and blowing past in a split-second. Dennis was in the 81st percentile on isolations in 2019-2020, with those feisty forays to the cup baked in.

His mano-a-mano prowess extends to end-of-clock and end-of-game scenarios. He had more clutch points than LeBron James, Bam Adebayo, and CJ McCollum in 2019-2020. More importantly, he had a sparkling 51.1% field goal percentage in these spots.

Finishing Inside

Dennis was an okay-to-poor finisher at the basket during his first few seasons. In 2019-2020 he managed to up his clip to a respectable 62.8%. This is thanks in part to doing a better job decelerating into a more controlled finish after coming in hot. Some more functional strength could also have been of help here.

He gets the ball nice and high off the window to elude shot-blockers. Dennis makes this an even greater emphasis on his switches versus centers. Beating them off the dribble is a piece of cake, but he skillfully scoops it up high on the glass afterward.

Pitch-and-Dash

The speed merchant loves to pitch it to his big and dash into the dribble handoff. This way, Dennis is already close to a full sprint by the time he obtains the basketball. He closed out 2018-2019 in the 79th percentile for handoffs, then the 73rd in 2019-2020.

Going hard to the hole right off the catch is a premium way of leveraging that blazing foot speed. He loves using a long right-footed negative step to get going downhill. Schroder craftily drops his center of gravity even lower as he blasts through the defense.

Screen Usage

Schroder uses ball screens very well. His speed of course is key, but he also sets up the screen well. Schroder times has blow-by move with the moment his man gets hit by the screener. He proceeds to scoot by to the hole while freezing drop men with hesi's if need be.

The speedy Schroder scored 400 points in 2019-2020 as the pick-and-roll ball-handler, in the 91st percentile scoring off ball screens. He torches any miscommunication with his quick midrange jumper.

That shot in particular is his chief counter to players going over on him. Dennis loves that elbow area, shooting 40.1% on all midrange jumpers over 2019-2020. He upped that to a flaming-hot 48.7% in 2020-2021.

Other Offensive Competencies

Dennis can make the lob pass, dump-off, and locate the pop man all well. His pocket passing in opposite corner skips could be better though. On the whole, he is still capable and shines most as the second-best playmaker on the floor.

He can accept any and all roles within the offensive backcourt. He's worked himself into a spot-up threat with some surprisingly deep range. 35% was his catch-and-shoot three mark in 2018-2019 and 41.4% his figure in 2019-2020. As a Laker, he nailed 36.3% of these kinds of triple tries (2020-2021).

Scrappy Defense

Schroder defends at a high level on the perimeter. He moves his feet very well while masterfully navigating screens. He's more of a point of attack savant than anything else, with middling steals and deflections counts. Additionally, he's a perfect piece to use as the pressure man during the odd full-court press for example.

His body is perfectly built to circumvent screen-setters. That 6'7.75" wingspan is what he wedges in to get around the pick initially. Dennis's recovery speed is elite when it comes to getting back beside or in front of his man.

He was in the 73rd percentile defending handoffs in 2019-2020. Off-the-ball, he's a roamer who covers ground lightning-fast and provides good contests with his length. On the inside, he chips in with some charge-drawing to the tune of 12 in 2019-2020 (same as Marcus Smart).

WEAKNESSES

Mediocre Floater Touch

His floater game is a bit lacking. Slash-first guards like Dennis need a strong package of runners and leaners to maximize their game. This rings true even more so when discussing smaller guards. Schroder's sub-40% mark on non-restricted area paint shots from 2015-2016 to 2020-2021 troubling.

Off-the-Dribble Shooting Struggles

Three-point shooting has long been a knock on the 6'3" guard. This is too broad a critique, as it's really his pull-up triple percentages that are subpar. From 2015-2016 to 2020-2021, he has always been below 30% on pull-up threes.

With such a streaky jumper, Schroder's defenders keep going under his ball screens. He still out-races them to the basket but he'd make his life even easier by being a greater threat on the pull-up. The guard's shot motion is pretty slow and he doesn't get much elevation on these looks.

Playmaking that Doesn't Stack Up

Without a doubt, Dennis Schroder has more of a two-guard's game. In actuality, the man is 6'3", 172lbs. He gets tabbed as the point guard very often with his physical profile matching up so congruently.

Passing the basketball at a high level is not in Dennis's game. He lacks the floor vision of a small Kemba Walker or Damian Lillard, nor does he have the height to see over the top like a Malcolm Brogdon or Lonzo Ball.

His 10.1 assist points created a night in 2019-2020 were bettered by Karl-Anthony Towns, Khris Middleton, and Brandon Ingram. None of these players are lead guards like Dennis is. Moreover, his assist-to-turnover ratios are consistently not where they should be given the expectations of his position.

There is another way one can measure how Schroder's facilitating stacks up with his point guard peers. On Dennis's 2019-2020 drives, he averaged just 1 assist per game. What's more telling is his pass percentage of 36.2%. For context, the game's purest point guards like Chris Paul and Ricky Rubio were north of 50% that year.

Positional Rigidity on D

The main defensive nitpick with Dennis is a lack of switchiness. His size and more specifically his weight essentially limit him to checking point guards. Even among that positional pool, Schroder will almost always be on the wrong end of the weight matchup.

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Beacon Bacon

Dennis was the lightest player to step on a scale during his draft combine, coming into the NBA at just 164.8 lbs.