LOS ANGELES — As a franchise, the Toronto Raptors are no strangers to point guard depth.
Some of the organization’s most encouraging stretches have been fueled by tandems of quality guards, rather than a single superstar, often by necessity.
Going back to the Vince Carter era, the Raptors made their first playoff forays with a point guard by committee approach, getting a solid 48 minutes of playmaking from varying combinations of Muggsy Bogues, Alvin Williams, Dee Brown, Mark Jackson, and Chris Childs. No Hall-of-Famers in that group, but a lot of veteran guys who understood the job.
A few years later, during Chris Bosh’s best years with the franchise, the Raptors were able to mix fastballs and changeups thanks to the combination of T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon running the point.
And while Kyle Lowry — who likely will be Hall-of-Fame bound if and when he ever retires — didn’t need all that much help as he took the reigns just as the Raptors began their run up the Eastern Conference ladder with the first of eight consecutive playoff appearances in 2013-14, the best seasons in franchise history came when he shared point guard duties with Fred VanVleet, an all-star calibre point guard himself. There were a lot of reasons the Raptors won roughly 72 per cent of their games and an NBA championship from 2017-19 to 2019-20, but a big one was the Raptors rarely had a minute of floor time without an elite point guard organizing it.
And the reverse is also true. The Raptors didn’t have depth at the position the last two seasons behind VanVleet — apologies to Malachi Flynn — and Toronto suffered when he wasn’t on the floor. And while the hope this year was that Flynn, in his fourth season, would be ready to elevate the Raptors’ bench units, it never materialized as Toronto was nearly nine points worse off per 100 possessions when he played than when he sat.
Which brings us to Dennis Schroder and the Raptors’ decision to bring the veteran point guard off the bench — a choice that predated the acquisition of Immanuel Quickley, as the Raptors experimented with Scottie Barnes as their lead ballhandler but seems set in stone now that Quickley is in the fold as the team’s point guard of the present and the future.
The trade means more shooting in the starting lineup with Quickley, who seems an ideal long-term fit alongside Barnes. The addition of RJ Barrett has also injected more ball-handling and decision-making into the starting lineup.
But perhaps the most immediate benefit of the trade has been the Raptors ‘acquiring’ some elite point guard depth by sliding Schroder back to the second unit.
“Dennis brings a lot of energy to everything that we do,” said Rajakovic. “He’s trying to play the right way on the offensive end, he’s very disruptive [defensively] … his mentality and his force is something that really rubs off on our guys very well.”
Schroeder wasn’t exactly happy with the decision to bring him off the bench prior to the trade, according to sources. One of the reasons he signed with the Raptors in free agency this past summer was the prospect of having his own team to run after coming off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers last season and the Boston Celtics the season before that.
Schroder started for two seasons with Atlanta Hawks in 2016-17 and 2017-18 and again in his first stint with the Lakers in 2020-21, and heading into his 11th season he wanted the opportunity to start again. Rajakovic, who has history with Schroder from their seasons together in Oklahoma City, empowered him as a starter and believed Schroder could lift a team in that role much as he has with the German national team — who he led to the World Cup gold medal this past summer — so it was a reversal, there is no escaping that.
But with the decision now made Schroder is willing to make it work as he gets prepared to face his old team, the Lakers, whom he helped reach the Western Conference Finals in — that’s right — a bench role.
“[Darko] said he was thinking about doing a change [and] he knows how effective I am in any role I play,” Schroder said Sunday after another impressive performance off the bench in the Raptors’ blowout win over the Golden State Warriors. “… I always found my way … whatever it takes for this organization to win, I’ll do it. He knows that, that I want to win every single night, that’s the best feeling ever. Just keep going, every single chance I get on the court to do the right things.”
As Schroder gets ready for Toronto’s back- to-back against the Lakers Tuesday and the Clippers on Wednesday, he can be confident he’s playing some of his best basketball, regardless of role.
In his last four games he’s averaging 14.8 points and five assists while shooting 56.4 per cent from the floor and has been in double figures each of his past four games.
He may not be starting alongside Quickley but he’s sharing the floor with him for productive stretches at the end of the first quarter and start of the second quarter. Schroder has also remained part of Rajakovic’s closing lineups.
And while the long-term potential of Quickley is clear — the four-year guard is averaging 17.3 points and 6.5 assists while shooting 41.4 per cent from three in his four games with the Raptors — the benefits of having a starting-calibre point guard playing in a bench role is beginning to become apparent.
The Raptors have had three bench players score in double figures in each of the past two games — something that happened just once in the previous 34 games — and their bench ranks fifth in net rating at plus-4.9 since the trade. Prior to the trade, the Raptors bench was 21st in the NBA in net rating.
It’s early days, but the Raptors reserves with Schroder at the helm seem to be developing some chemistry and perhaps even an identity.
“He definitely keeps us focussed when he comes into the game,” said Raptors forward Chris Boucher, who has scored 31 points on 16 shots in his last two games while playing a large dose of minutes alongside Schroder. “And if he’s ready it’s tough not to come in and do the same. He communicates a lot on the floor, so it helps us a lot on the bench with the switches and just being in the right spot.”
Barrett, who is playing minutes alongside Schroder at the start of the second quarters as part of a bench-heavy unit, is similarly beginning to see the benefits.
“I got to play against Dennis this summer, and this summer is when I really got to see how good a basketball player he is,” said Barrett, who knocked heads with Schroder and the German national team in warm-up games prior to the World Cup. “And now playing with him, he’s such a smart player, he’s a very, very good basketball player. It’s a joy playing with him.”
Schroder would doubtless find more joy starting and leading a team as he hoped to when he signed this summer, but he’s had plenty of experience helping good teams get better while coming off the bench. He’s helped teams make the playoffs eight times in his career before this season, six times while playing the role he’s in now — a major minutes eater who runs his team’s second unit.
“At the end of the day, it’s whatever it takes to win the basketball game,” said Schroder. “For me, to be there, end of games, to impact winning whenever I’m on the floor, it’s the most important.”
