Dennis Schroder is the key to a successful OKC Thunder second unit

While the OKC Thunder second unit has certainly struggled through various parts of the season, the benches success lies in the hands of Dennis Schroder.

Dennis Schroder‘s individual numbers have been absolutely sensational for the OKC Thunder. The German is averaging 15.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 28.7 minutes of action while reinventing his game to play off the ball more. While his shooting splits are not ideal (41.1 percent shooting from the field, 33.5 percent from three), its the first time OKC has possessed a sixth man who can score the rock since Kevin Martin.

However, his stats do not correlate with the success of the Thunder’s bench unit.

Oklahoma City’s second unit ranks 27th in points (31.1), 27th in shooting percentage (42.5), 27th in 3-point percentage (31.1) and 29th in assists (5.7). While the percentages are a big problem, the biggest issue is in the assist column.

Schroder needs to balance scoring with distribution

The German is in the Russell Westbrook mold – a score-first point guard who has the capacity to be an elite passer when looking to involve his teammates. The current version of Schroder is somewhat similar to what Russ used to be before his game matured. Dennis has a scorers mentality and often prioritizes “getting his” over passing to the open man.

When Schroder finds a nice balance between scoring and distributing, Oklahoma City’s second unit can easily hold its own. In one of their best games of the season, the German, Abdel Nader, and Patrick Patterson combined to score 47-points against the San Antonio Spurs.

Isolation offense is to be expected as Schroder is a strong scorer in one on one match-ups. However, he excels when he pushes the tempo and attacks the rim. The German’s gravity opens up the perimeter and gives the likes of Patterson open looks.

Use Patterson, Nader and Noel more

Given Schroder’s ability to draw so much attention, he needs to do a better job finding open shooters. Nader and Patterson have emerged as reliable outside shooters the past two months, especially PPat who struggled throughout November.

Below is OKC’s 3-point shooting splits since December 1st.

3-point shooting splits since DEC 1st pic.twitter.com/UiYzgQvtiZ
— Lord Presti (@Mhat1G) January 26, 2019

While both players are attempting less than two attempts per game, they are both hitting above 40 percent from deep. The Egyptian is converting at a 45.2 percent rate while PPat is shooting 40 percent from range. Nader does an extremely good job moving without the ball and driving into lanes while Patterson is doing a much better job getting to his spots on the break or as a pick and pop threat.

While PPat and Nader are perimeter oriented, Nerlens Noel lives in the paint and is a fantastic roll man in pick and roll sets. Schroder needs to utilize his athletic abilities by looking for Noel for easy dunks. The big man has also shown off a solid mid-range jump shot and must be given an opportunity as a pick and pop threat. Noel is a starting caliber center and Schroder needs to utilize his athleticism more frequently.

Will Schroder do it?