The Sacramento Kings entered the offseason needing a new starting point guard after trading De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs before the February deadline, and they landed on Dennis Schröder. The NBA journeyman arrived in Sacramento via a sign-and-trade, getting a three-year, $45 million deal from the Kings.
Schröder will be the team's starting point guard, coming off a season where he suited up for three different teams. He started 23 games for the Nets to begin the season before Brooklyn traded him to the Warriors, where Schröder started 18 of the 24 games he played. Golden State then traded him to Utah, who traded him to the Pistons. He played 28 games in Detroit, starting eight of them.
Now, after helping the Pistons finish the season and win their first postseason game since 2008, Schröder will have an even bigger opportunity ahead of him, fighting to lead the Kings to the playoffs.
Dennis Schröder will be the Kings' starting point guard
Schröder is a good veteran point guard to have on the roster, but Sacramento's decision to give him the contract the team did and make him the starter was questionable. He won't come close to filling the void left behind by Fox, but having him as the lead ballhandler is better than letting Devin Carter run point, since the Kings think they have a shot in the West.
The new point guard won't fill the void that Fox left behind; that's not who Schröder is. He isn't a star point guard. He's not the Kings' new face of their franchise. Odds are that Schröder will be in trade rumors well before his current contract runs out. That's how his career has gone.
In the meantime, he'll have a shot to prove himself as a starter. Sacramento is facing an uphill battle as it is in a stacked Western Conference. Schröder is coming off a EuroBasket MVP performance, but even if that version of him were to show up in the NBA next season, the Kings would still be at a disadvantage because of the teams around them.
Schröder's job isn't to fix Sacramento, but to try to help them win games. He'll get to do that as the full-time starter, for as long as he's around. Between that and the payday he got, Schröder couldn't ask for much more than that.