The Dennis Schröder Factor

Over the 2024 offseason, the Detroit Pistons acquired Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr, while re-signing Simone Fontecchio. None of the four are individually stars, but each are above-average outside shooters who have provided floor spacing threats that increase the options in the team’s playbook, and created wider driving lanes for Cade Cunningham to exploit. 

This simple offseason revision has been a key part of Detroit’s turnaround. One year on from a league-worst 14-68 season and a history-worst 28-game losing streak, the Pistons finished the 2024-25 season as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 44-38 record, an enormous 30-game turnaround. The resurgence was one of the feel-good stories of the 2024/25 NBA season, and while their 16th-ranked offensive rating this season was still nothing to write home about, it represented a vast improvement on last season’s 27th.

The NBA however is no longer a one-playmaker league. With the advancement in defensive strategy and the substantial increase in frontcourt players who can play in space and switch onto guards, teams can more effectively key in on individual ball-handlers, necessitating all line-ups to have at least one player comfortable with driving against a set defence, or at least a ball reversal. 

To only have one is akin to playing in concrete. And due to the broken fibula of third-year guard Jaden Ivey – which kept him out since the new year – Detroit had only one all too often.

 

Veteran For Hire

To that end, the Pistons completed a trade in February when they acquired Dennis Schröder from the Golden State Warriors . Schröder had only been with the Warriors for six weeks after they acquired him from the Brooklyn Nets in December, and was initially reported as heading to the Utah Jazz instead before the news of his redirection to Detroit broke; undeniably, then, the 31-year-old German international has reached the journeyman phase of his career. 

Sometimes, though, that journey arrives at the right destination.

In the 51 games they had played prior to Schröder’s arrival, the Pistons’ offensive rating – a measure of how many points a team scores per 100 possessions – was 112.2 . They scored 112.7 points per game, and put up only a 25-26 record; all represented big improvements from 2023/24, to be sure, but not enough to be a surefire playoff team.

In the 31 regular season games after Schröder’s arrival, though, the Pistons won 19, scored 120.1 points per game, and posted an offensive rating of 118.3 .

Certainly, this was not solely due to Schröder. He was however the only substantial difference to the rotation since that time, and has been an above-average NBA scorer for a decade. 

Be it in the NBA or for the German national team that he led to an unexpected yet impressive bronze medal at the 2022 EuroBasket tournament , Schröder has long been an excellent offensive talent. Quick without the ball and somehow seemingly even quicker with it, he has a tight handle, can get to his spot, finish with either hand, or raise up to shoot with range over any defender. Shot selection and defence have long been the knocks on him, yet the offensive infusion Schröder provides from the second he takes the court is what the Pistons needed from him, as well as his confidence in their closing line-ups. 

Most importantly, though, his presence plugs the hole left by the absence of Ivey. Without him, the Pistons relied excessively on Cade Cunningham for ball-handling responsibilities in the backcourt, and despite Cade’s continued ascent to the upper tiers of the NBA, it did the team no favours to make him easier to defend in this way. With Schröder in toe, though, the options have increased, and so have the results

 

The Possibility of Bringing Him Back

Schröder’s $13,025,250 contract is set to expire this summer, and he is not eligible for an extension. Free agency looks, then, and when the Pistons acquired him and Lindy Waters III in exchange for K.J. Martin, a 2028 second-round pick, a swap of 2031 second-round picks and a nominal amount of cash, they knowingly did so as a rental. It was they who gave up the future assets for the immediate boost, believing that with a plus-ball-handler like him, they could bridge the gap to Ivey’s return and make noise in the playoffs.

Longer term, the Pistons will want their younger players to take more of the playmaking responsibilities. Stand-out rookie Ausar Thompson has something of a young Kawhi Leonard about him, and the team will want to see if he can make similar offensive leaps to his San Diego State forebear, while the returning Ivey and a developing Ron Holland II will also be given their opportunities. If he were to return to Detroit, then, Schröder’s role may never be as big as it is now, and thus his value to the team never as high.

Nevertheless, Schröder was brought in to do a job, and he has delivered. “Journeyman” is not a pejorative; a journeyman is someone with multiple suitors, depending on circumstances. Schröder will not lead the Pistons to the light, but he will raise the floor for an interim period while the young core develops enough to raise the ceiling. The Pistons, in the NBA’s basement for so long, made an entirely reasonable “win-now” trade. And it was a success.

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