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Dennis Schroder has only been gone for three games, one of which was a win over the top team in the West, but the Oklahoma City Thunder can feel the guard’s absence.
“We’re a totally different team without Dennis,” point guard Chris Paul said.
During the 121-92 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, the bench unit struggled mightily. The eight players combined for 26 points on 10-for-47 shooting.
Schroder averages about 19 points on 15 shots per game.
Simply only having one playmaker on the court for extended periods of time has been a challenge for Oklahoma City. The Thunder are typically able to have two of Paul, Schroder and Gilgeous-Alexander on the court, but without Schroder, the minutes of the other two are staggered.
While the Thunder have a lot of nice bench pieces, they don’t have anyone beyond those three who are particularly strong lead guards. Forward Danilo Gallinari has been relied upon more as a shot creator, but even he isn’t the ideal situation.
“There haven’t been many times this season that we sort of play without having a couple ball handlers on the court,” Paul said. “It is what it is, we’re gonna fight, we’re going to keep getting through these games.”
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Three games — one win, one overtime loss, and one bad loss — is too small a sample size to be worried about, but Friday in particular did show a stark difference.
Gilgeous-Alexander had his second poor shooting game in a row. Two days after going 3-for-11 from the field, he shot 3-for-13 against Memphis. Over those two games, he is 2-for-12 from 3.
That prompted head coach Billy Donovan to be asked during the postgame press conference if Schroder’s absence is impacting Gilgeous-Alexander and his ability to create shots without the extra spacing.
“I don’t know if it is or it isn’t,” Donovan said. “I think you have to look at the fact that he’s in a totally different role than he was.”
Donovan did not say yes, but that answer sounds like it is impacting Gilgeous-Alexander.
He has shown the ability to be a lead guard over his two years in the league, but it’s not something he has had to do much of this year.
“I think he’s done a great job handling it. I know he can handle it, but it’s probably been a little bit different for him,” Donovan said.
“I think the biggest thing for him is you’re going to have nights that you don’t shoot the ball particularly well … He’s a guy that can impact the game in a lot of different ways on both ends of the floor.”
Whether his shooting woes are directly correlated to Schroder or not, the Thunder have lacked a spark without the sixth man.
It’s only been three games, so it’s a small sample size, but the Thunder still need to find that next man off the bench who can create offense consistently.
On Friday afternoon, there was no timeline for Schroder’s return.
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