Every NBA reporter should have a template ready by now:
Dennis Schröder has been traded.
Just change the teams.
On Friday night, Schröder was traded for the ninth time and is now set to play for the 12th team of his 13-year NBA career.
He doesn’t hold the record – at least not yet. Trevor Ariza was traded 11 times during his 18-year career and played for 10 different teams.
If Schröder suits up for one more franchise, the German point guard will tie Ish Smith’s record.
With the German national team, Schröder has been the embodiment of stability and continuity.
In the NBA, he has often been a trade chip – a useful piece brought in to fill a need, only to be moved again.
He has played 912 regular-season NBA games, averaging 13.7 points and 4.9 assists. Add another 91 playoff appearances, with averages of 10.7 points and 3.4 assists.
So Why Does Nobody Seem to Keep Him?
That’s hardly the résumé of a player nobody wants to keep.
So why does nobody seem to keep him?
There is no simple answer.
Some of those trades made perfect sense given what the teams involved needed at the time.
Others? Not so much.
Many will point to Schröder’s combustible personality, his sometimes brutally direct way of communicating – even with teammates – and some of the confrontations he has been involved in, most notably last year’s clash with Luka Dončić.
But Schröder is hardly the NBA’s problem child. Plenty of players have caused far more serious trouble, on the court and especially off it, without being traded nearly as often.
“I think it’s just the demeanor that he carries. The level of holding everybody accountable. You feel that tenacity. Obviously, we all know what he brings defensively, picking up full court, being a menace – as I call him, ‘Dennis the Menace,'” Donovan Mitchell said not too long ago.
“And then also what he sees in huddles, sees at halftime, sees in film. When you’ve got a guy who’s been around the league and played at the highest levels, he sees a lot of different things and brings a different perspective.”
Head coach Kenny Atkinson was full of praise for him as well.
Just a few months later…
Schröder was off to the Charlotte Hornets, a franchise that hasn’t experienced playoff basketball since 2016.
A Different Dennis With Germany
If Schröder’s NBA career has been defined by constant movement, his journey with Germany has been the exact opposite – continuity, responsibility and, eventually, glory.
Schröder played for Germany at youth level and rarely missed a major tournament once he became a senior international. After the Olympics, he even said he wanted to represent his country until he was 40.
He inherited the leadership role from the great Dirk Nowitzki and became the face of the most talented generation in German basketball history – Franz and Moritz Wagner, Daniel Theis, Andreas Obst, Johannes Voigtmann, Isaac Bonga…
“I think what’s cool about him is that he is very, very honest, very straightforward in his communication. And he wants everybody else to do the same. He doesn’t ask for anything that he doesn’t do himself,” Franz Wagner told FIBA in 2022.
“I think his commitment, his loyalty to the national team speaks for itself, and it gives other guys extra motivation to come and do the same.”
What followed was the greatest stretch in the history of German basketball: gold at the 2023 World Cup in the Philippines, fourth place at the Paris Olympics and another gold medal at last year’s EuroBasket.
Schröder was MVP on the road to both gold medals and was also selected to the All-Star Five at the Olympics.
A leader on and off the court. Controlled, responsible, trusted.
Not always the Dennis Schröder the NBA has known.
What Leadership Means to Schröder
“We know each other and we know how we can talk to each other when things get heated,” Schröder told Kicker. “Can I yell at them? Yes, because they know exactly that my intentions are good. And if they tell me, ‘What the hell are you doing?’, I know what their intention is, too – that guy just wants to win.”
Then he offered perhaps an even better explanation of how he views leadership.
“People always talk about how I led the team. But you can’t be a leader if you don’t have a group that follows you, where everybody believes in what the leader is saying. That’s more important than anything I did.”
Perhaps the tournament format brings out the best in Schröder. His fierce competitive streak seems to sharpen his focus when every possession, every game, carries extra weight.
Over an 82-game NBA season, maintaining that same edge is a different challenge. The highs and lows become almost inevitable – both in his game and emotionally.
Still, wherever Schröder has played, he has contributed and left a tangible mark.
Outside of the beginning of his NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks, he has never stayed anywhere long enough to truly put down roots – or to establish himself as a leader the way he has with Germany.
Will Charlotte Be Any Different?
Will that finally happen in Charlotte?
History suggests otherwise.
But if there is one thing Schröder has never lacked, it’s self-confidence.
And perhaps the best way to understand his perspective is to hear it from the man himself.
“People always ask me, ‘Dennis, first you’re here, then you’re there. Doesn’t it bother you?’ I always tell them: in Europe, you hardly ever get four- or five-year deals either. One year you’re playing for Milan, then Real Madrid wants you, then you go to Bayern.
“At the end of the day, I’m playing in the best league in the world and I just want to be here and feel appreciated by the organization I play for. That gives you the security of knowing you belong among the established players in this league.
“When I think about how I grew up, I couldn’t have dreamed of anything more. I’m simply grateful that I get to be here and continue on this journey.
“And when people say, ‘But you have to find another house again’… OK, I’ll find one. No problem. That’s nothing crazy to me. I don’t see it as something negative.”
Dennis Schröder, NBA season No. 14.
New team. Same Dennis.