Boston Celtics: The good and bad of Dennis Schroder’s game
By Chris Conte
The good and bad of Dennis Schroder’s offense
After getting traded to the Lakers for a package centered around Danny Green, many expected Schroder to break out alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but those expectations were quickly curved as both LA’s juggernauts sustained injuries early on.
The injuries the Lakers suffered throughout the season played a large part in Schroder’s shortcomings on the stat sheet, so if you’re looking at his Basketball Reference page, I would like to direct your attention to a more detailed breakdown as to what he can provide.
Beginning with his scoring, Schroder makes his money in the mid-range and getting downhill. He’s a master at working around picks and getting to his spot at the elbow or the free-throw line for a clean pull-up jumper.
In the past two seasons, Schroder has shot 45 percent from 10-16 feet away from the rim and from 16 feet to beyond the 3-point line, showing some solid touch inside the arc.
He can create his own shots, but he’s particularly good at challenging the dropped center in the pick and roll with his jump-shooting by leveraging his speed and superior balance.
Schroder is a great downhill scorer, using his long strides and longer arms to blow by his man and get to the rim with ease, but this downhill scoring also opens up his mid-range game since the bigs will let him shoot jumpers over layups.
Either way, Schroder is proficient in both realms, and that’s something the Boston Celtics have missed since Gordon Hayward left.
If Schroder decides to take his chances at the rim, he has an assortment of moves in the location to get his shot up.
Although he’s not a great finisher in any regard, he does possess a reliable floater and has a solid layup package.
His passible interior game, elite mid-range shooting, and reasonable free throw rate make him an ideal advantage creator for the Boston Celtics.
Schroder can punish defenses overplaying Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown and leverage Robert Williams’s and Horford’s perimeter gravity.
I expect Schroder’s scoring production to jump back up to what it was in 2019-20 with him now in Boston.
However, Schroder is far from the perfect scorer.
He has plenty of flaws that were exploited on an understaffed Lakers roster this season, and the Cs should hope those flaws don’t bleed into next season.
Schroder’s shot selection was abysmal, mostly due in part to his tunnel vision and lack of space creating on his dribble drives. He is an inconsistent 3-point shooter and does not have enough counters to be a lead creator.
It would be in Ime Udoka’s best interest to pair Schroder with one of Brown or Tatum at all times so he can feed off the mismatches they generate. Hopefully, that will improve Schroder’s shooting numbers and ease his decision-making.
Moving away from his scoring, the veteran provides an exciting passing level to the Boston Celtics’ depth chart.
Schroder has averaged 4.7 assists in 26 minutes per game throughout his career, an impressive mark and one the Boston Celtics should be eager to leverage. He’s a great pick and roll ball handler, coming off screens and being able to locate the rolling or popping big with ease, tallying 1129 assists at the rim and 118 on above the break triples.
Schroder is a two-handed passer, limiting his manipulation ability but increasing his accuracy, which is essential for Boston’s two bigs specializing in different skill sets.
When Schroder is driving downhill, he is an excellent dump-off passer, tricking the big into jumping with him and providing his man down low with a timely and accurate pass.
In transition, Schroder keeps his eyes peeled for run-outs, and more often than not, he hits them.
His passing abilities will bode well next to Boston’s premier offensive weapons.
Schroder is far from a great passer, though. As I said, he lacks creativity and manipulation skills due to his two-handed passing playstyle.
His shortcomings as a higher IQ passer lead to his high turnover rate, cTOV% of 11 percent.
Since he can’t see over the defense and has good anticipation skills, he often grows indecisive the longer he’s on the ball and gets locked in on one passing option.
If defenses can key in on Schroder’s favorite outlet, he becomes a turnover machine since he lacks the counters and vision to find another outlet. It would be best for Udoka to limit his reps as a primary ball-handler, given how careless and limited he is as a passer.