By Rafal Juc
After extremely consistent and intense week of practices at Nike Hoop Summit 2013 and outperforming his American counterparts with putting up 18 games and 6 assists in the game, Dennis Schroeder (’93) impressed numerous NBA executives and emerged as high as the third-best point guard in the 2013 draft. Is the German breakout sensation going to turn out a legitimate top20 pick overall this June?
19 years old Schroeder, as the oldest one in the World Team, took over the leadership right off the bat in coach Roy Rana’s team, showing maturity, responsibility and strong vocal presence. Obviously it riveted scouts’ attention as one of the biggest question mark around Schroeder are his intangibles. Listed only at 6-2 with shoes on, German point guard possesses only average size for NBA, especially given his skinny and narrow frame, however he makes it up with off the charts wingspan, measured at 6-7. Nevertheless, Schroeder should translate him game easily to the NBA standards with his lighting quick first step.
Offensively, Schroeder is at his best with the ball in hands. With his blazing speed, quick first step and polished ball-handling, he displays an ability to get by literally each defender effortlessly at will. Moreover, he plays under the control and commits surprisingly few turnovers as for somebody playing on such a high rate of a speed. In Portland Schroeder seemed born to play the American way of the basketball. Freed from slow-paced, half-court-oriented and pick-and-roll-based game plan, he did a great job of speeding up the tempo, running transition and creating for the teammates. Moreover, better spacing gave him more space to go into isolations and although Schroder still struggles to finish inside the paint, he has been getting to the lane on a high rate. Nonetheless, German point guards tends to settle down for a pull-up jumper or awkward tear-drop instead of going all the way to the basket.
As a playmaker, Schroeder is really responsible and doesn’t dribble pointlessly, showing understanding of spacing and positioning. He showed variety of passes starting with bounce entry-passes to posting up big men, cross-passes to lobs at the rim in Chris Paul style. Anyway, Schroeder musts become more ball protector, as under the pressure he tends to kick out the ball instead of protect it as the one with the best handle in the team. Although he’s great facilitator, he’s quite limited scorer though. Doesn’t show bookish follow-through on his jumper from 3-point line, struggles to stay stable on contact inside the paint, is quite inconsistent at the rim and barely penetrates on his weak, left hand. On the other hand, Schroeder relies heavily on his catch-and-shoot, which is his go-to move offensively as he misses hardly ever with feet set up from the midrange.
Defensively, Schroeder impresses with relentless ball pressure. High intensity goes along with incredible 6-7 wingspan, what allows him to cover more ground as you might expect. With quick feet and off the charts lateral speed, he is capable to contain each ball handler. Definitely needs to add some muscles to his upper-body as standing at 6-2 might be an easy target for higher guards to get him back down on the low-post.
Coming to the Nike Hoop Summit as a little bit overlooked and obscure prospect, Schroeder has left Portland as possible mid-first rounder for the 2013 NBA draft. Ranked as high as the third-best point guard this year, German point guard has already entered his name and should stay as his stock is extremely high. Nevertheless, he has one more year remaining with NY Phantoms Braunschweig and had already received six-figure paycheck offer from German powerhouse Bayern Munich for the upcoming season. Schroeder is still only 19 and as a late-bloomer, who in 2011 was only back-up point guard in German junior national team at European Championships U18, shows a ton of upside. He doesn’t show Trey Burke’s strength and winning mentality as well as Micheal Carter-Williams’ size and athleticism, but down the road might develop into Derrick Collison-type point guard though.
Photo: Sean Meagher/OregonLive.com
