Dennis Schroder Flashes Excellence in EuroBasket 2015

Dennis Schroder is finally turning into the point guard the Atlanta Hawks envisioned when they drafted him in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft.

The 21-year-old floor general followed up his excellent Summer League play with an outstanding performance in EuroBasket 2015 for his home nation Germany.

Schroder has received plenty of high level basketball exposure this summer with the Las Vegas Summer League and EuroBasket 2015. This has helped Schroder improve his game vastly and should put him in position to battle for the Hawks’ backup point guard position, currently held by Shelvin Mack.

Schroder got off to a slow start in Summer League play with an abysmal 2-for-13 game against the Washington Wizards. However, he was quickly able to improve from that match and went on to average 17.2 points per game through the final five contests.

What’s even more good news for Atlanta Hawks fans is after Schroder’s poor opening game in which he shot 15 percent from the field, including zero percent (0-2) from behind the arc, he was able to raise his marks to 45 percent overall and 36 percent from the perimeter by summers end.

Schroder’s usage was very high this summer, which is evident in his improvement numbers-wise from his last summer’s campaign. He also showed improvement in was his free throw rate, which jumped from 15 attempts last year to 39 attempts this year.

But enough about Schroder’s Summer League performance (if you want more you can read about it here).

What I am sure most people are interested is how Dennis Schroder applied his Summer League knowledge to the German Men’s National Team for EuroBasket 2015 2nd Round Qualifying.

Initially, Schroder appeared to struggle with the same issues that were present in Summer League for Atlanta.

Low assist and high turnover numbers were the case for Schroder in the early going for Germany. He averaged 4.5 turnovers per game in Summer League and his ball control struggles were evident early on in EuroBasket 2015 as he averaged 5.0 turnovers per game through Germany’s first two matches.

While Schroder struggled with turnover issues for the entirety of the Summer League, he was able to give Hawks fans a nice surprise as he cut his turnover rate in half for the final four games of EuroBasket, averaging just 2.5 turnovers per game during the stretch.

Schroder even upped his assist numbers, especially over Germany’s final three games, averaging 6.7 per game in those matches.

This has to be a great confidence booster for Schroder as the season gets closer, especially considering this drastic improvement and consistent playing has given him an opportunity to gain a larger role for the Atlanta Hawks in the upcoming season.

You just know that Coach Budenholzer and Atlanta Hawks’ General Manager Danny Ferry were watching Schroder play in EuroBasket 2015 qualifying and they have to be ecstatic about the work Dennis Schroder did in those games.

Dennis Schroder is in a prime position to grab a large role in the NBA this upcoming season with his performances in Summer LEague and EuroBasket 2015 qualifying

Another positive for Dennis Schroder was his field goal percentage, not only inside the arc but outside as well. Schroder shot 10-of-22 from deep in Germany’s six games. Although the international 3-point line is a little less that 2 feet shorter than the NBA 3-point line the numbers Schroder put up were still impressive.

Shooting was believed to be Dennis Schroder’s Achilles heel coming into the NBA Draft and while we will not know for sure whether it has been fully remedied until the regular season, that kind of shooting from 22 feet out (FIBA’s 3 point line distance) is a great improvement for Schroder and shows his outside shot is developing.

With a little more time and effort in the upcoming season, especially with the kind of system the Atlanta Hawks run in regards to 3-point shooting, Dennis Schroder should be able to hold his own and keep defenders on his heel from deep.

It was not just Dennis Schroder’s 3-point shot that was excellent in EuroBasket 2015 qualifying though. Schroder 7th among all players in overall field goal percentage, shooting 57.1% from the field. Finishing 7th among all players in field goal percentage is very impressive, especially when you consider there were 26 teams that competed in EuroBasket 2015 qualifying.

In fact, Dennis Schroder took to the leaderboard in a bevy of categories. Dennis Schroder finished in the top 15 in the categories of points per game, free throw percentage, assists, and field goals made per game, in addition to his number seven spot in field goal percentage.

The one category that Atlanta Hawks fans should really get excited about in relation to Dennis Schroder is Schroder’s performance in assists. His 5.3 assists per game were good enough to place him 7th among all EuroBasket 2015 qualifying players.

International basketball is a shorter game, only 40 minutes, which means that there are fewer opportunities for assists. This means that Dennis Schroder’s assist numbers are even better than they appear.

Actually, if you translate Schroder’s assist numbers into per 36 minutes numbers, you would find Dennis Schroder would have averaged 7.8 assits per game. Not too shabby for an NBA point guard.

This number of 7.8 assists per 36 minutes becomes even more incredible when you consider how young Schroder is (turns 21 in September) and how much more room for improvement he has.

Dennis Schroder was unbelievable statistically. His per 36 minutes line from EuroBasket 2015 qualifying is 22.5 points per game, 7.8 assists per game, and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Those per 36 numbers would put Dennis Schroder in the top 20 for points per game and assists per game per 36 minutes for the 2013-2014 NBA season.

His 22.5 points per game and 7.8 assists per game would also put Schroder right between Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving’s per 36 numbers from last season.

Dennis Schroder was just not there from a statistical standpoint, though. His on the floor court vision looked excellent. He looked like a player who was capable of starring for an NBA team.

He even lost his starting role at point in qualifying but was able to keep his cool and play within his game to earn back the role.

He put on masterful performances, his best of which came against Austria where he scored 24 points on 6-of-9 shooting and dished out 6 dimes.