The countdown is officially over. Or, depending on your perspective, it may have just begun.
In a move that has been expected for the past few weeks, the Thunder’s reserve point guard and NBA Sixth Man of the Year candidate Dennis Schroder has left the confines of the NBA’s Orlando campus to return home to be with his family.
Schroder and his wife have been expecting the birth of their second child, and although the team didn’t know precisely when the day would arrive on which Schroder would depart, it came rather abruptly on Monday.
In his stead, head coach Billy Donovan is expected to lean on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to orchestrate the offense for the team’s second unit, and as a result, he is going to stagger Gilgeous-Alexander and Chris Paul’s minutes.
It should make for an interesting experiment, as the domino effect of Schroder’s absence will be seen across the lineup. It could open up additional minutes for Andre Roberson, for example.
Dennis Schroder has left the bubble to be with his family, Billy Donovan said. Schroder and his wife are expecting their second child.
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) August 3, 2020
It is not known how long Schroder’s absence will last, but it’s safe to call him out indefinitely, as general manager Sam Presti himself acknowledged in a phone with reporters a few weeks ago that the Thunder are an organization that puts family first. They certainly won’t rush Schroder back.
If there is a silver-lining to his departure, it’s that Schroder left Orlando after the team’s first seeding game.
The club will have seven more seeding games in which Billy Donovan can figure out which of his players are best equipped to pick up the slack left in Schroder’s absence. That opportunity to tinker with the rotation in games that aren’t nearly as high-stakes as playoff contests is a stroke of good fortune for the head coach.
Schroder departed Orlando on Monday, prior to the team’s contest against the Denver Nuggets. The Thunder will carry a four-game winning streak into the competition — they swept their three Orlando exhibition contests before defeating the Utah Jazz on Saturday.
Let’s see if they can continue their winning ways.