Atlanta Hawks: The Subtlety of Paul Millsap’s Stardom

During Paul’s absence, the lion’s share of the playmaking and ball-handling pressure has been heaped onto the shoulders of Dennis Schröder. Schröder’s usage rate has gone up from 27.9% to 31.2% since Paul has been out. Schröder’s play has been inconsistent and the Hawks offense seems to go as he does.

His turnovers have risen in the last 7 games from 3.3 per game on the season to 5.6. His assists have only seen an increase from 6.3 per game to 6.9. But, is this bad decision-making by Schröder? Or simply a result of being the only playmaker on the floor for most of the game? Is this more on Dennis? Or a result of the lack of playmaking talent around him?

Take a look at the following 2 possessions, both taken from the Hawks game against the Nets on March 26.

If you freeze it at about the :06 second mark, you will see 4 Nets defenders in the lane looking to wall-off Dennis’ drive as he comes off of the pick-and-roll with Dwight Howard.

Again, here, as Dennis attacks, most of the defense’s attention is focused on him. Quincy Acy, who is guarding Ersan Ilyasova, leans in heavily on his drive and eventually knocks the ball out of his hands. This has been the quintessential play of Dennis’ tenure as the only playmaker on the floor with Paul out. His instincts are to attack the rim, and with Paul out, I am sure he has been encouraged to carry the playmaking load on offense. But, when the defense is SO ready to defend his drives, he is swarmed by the defense and is left little room to create.