Dennis Schröder is Having a Career Year for the Hawks
By Chris Guest
As one of only 3 remaining players from the supremely popular 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks team that won 60 games and went to the Eastern Conference Finals, Dennis Schröder is currently the Hawks’ best player – and through the first 42 games of the season, he’s playing like it.
DS17 has taken up a mantle of leadership for Atlanta, and as the primary ballhandler for the Hawks on offense, Schröder has had ample opportunities to showcase his skills on that end.
His 30.2% usage rate is first on the Hawks by a wide margin and that mark is also good for 14th in the entire league, meaning the Hawks tend to live or die by Schröder’s overall performance.
Though his passing ability is limited at best, Schröder knows that making an extra pass is usually the best way to get an open bucket – and Coach Mike Budenholzer’s system is also quite reliant on ball movement.
Because of his high usage as the Hawks’ primary ball handler, Dennis has accrued 257 total assists on 6.6 assists per game, both of which are good for 10th in the league. Even more impressive is Schröder’s 37.2% assist rate, meaning that almost 40 percent of his possessions end with an assisted bucket – good for 7th-highest in the entire NBA.
Though his passing numbers are impressive, Schröd is not really know for his ballhandling wizardry or his skillful passing; when you think of Dennis Schröder, the first thing that comes to mind is his aptitude for finishing layups at the rim after driving to the basket with absolutely amazing footspeed.
Schröder is leading the Hawks in field goals made (307) and field goals attempted (690) as well as total points (784). Though these stats are definitely impressive, Dennis is reliant on using that blistering speed to blow past defenders, and his finishing craft around the rim is far less spectacular than the way he gets open for these layups.
Still though, those field goal numbers are immense, and all of them rank quite highly throughout the league as well. The 307 made field goals put him at 18th overall, and more impressively, the 546 attempted two-pointers place Dennis at 7th in the league and his 264 made two-pointers are good for 12th overall in the league.
A notable omission in Dennis’s stats are three-pointers. While he is getting up 3.7 attempts from downtown per game, he is only hitting 29.9% of those shots, which is well below the league average.
That 29.9% clip from downtown is the lowest since Schröder’s rookie season, and though the three-point attempt rate of 20.9% is the lowest of his career, shooting from the perimeter is one area where Dennis’s game could potentially improve going forward.
It’s not as if Schröd doesn’t have a nice shooting stroke, as his midrange jumper numbers are stellar this season. Schröder is attempting 79.1% of his shots within the three-point arc and 34.5% of those are coming in the form of midrange jumpers.
Schröder is shooting close to 46% from the field on those shots, which is impressive consistency on a shot that has been falling out of favor throughout the NBA as the three-point shots has taken on more and more potency and importance.
Another area of expertise for Dennis is his free throw shooting. Though he doesn’t lead the team in shooting percentage from the charity stripe (Marco Belinelli is shooting an automatic 93% from the line), Dennis is shooting a rock-solid 87.6% from the line (good for 18th overall in the NBA) on 145 attempts, which is 1st on the Hawks.
Though his free throw rate is quite low at 21%, when he gets to the line there’s a good chance he’ll be netting the team some free points.
As Schröder takes on more and more responsibility as the Hawks’ primary scorer and ballhandler, look for him to search for more ways to get off open midrange jumpers and drive to the basket for easy layups.
Next: Atlanta Hawks Team Storylines at the Halfway Point
If Dennis ever fully develops his three-point stroke, he would be a lethal scorer from all over the court and would certainly garner all-star votes and increase the Hawks’ national profile going forward.