{"id":665650,"date":"2026-03-18T21:57:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665650\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:57:27","slug":"cavs-dennis-schroder-critiques-kings-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665650\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs’ Dennis Schroder Critiques Kings’ Integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

After leading Germany to a bronze medal and winning EuroBasket MVP honors in 2025, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dennis Schr\u00f6der<\/a> was one of the most popular players in the NBA. Having been drafted in 2013, it definitely wasn\u2019t because he was a novelty in the league. Instead, the source of the fanfare was the way Schr\u00f6der played in FIBA tournaments versus the NBA. Not necessarily in terms of play style but certainly in terms of aggressiveness and effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Consequently, when the 2025-26 season tipped off, there was a genuine belief that Schr\u00f6der\u2019s Bildungsroman could have a late-stage peak. Initially poised to enter the season as a full-time starter for the Sacramento Kings, the 32-year-old\u2019s experience took a sharp turn just three weeks into the season. Three months later, he found himself being traded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cavs\u2019 Dennis Schroder Critiques Kings\u2019 Integrity After Trade Deadline Transaction<\/p>\n

In an interview with Golden Hoops podcast host Andr\u00e9 Voigt, Schr\u00f6der expressed his true feelings about his Kings experience (h\/t HoopsHype):<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have to say one thing: with Sacramento, with Christie, it\u2019s extremely difficult right now. I don\u2019t want to build contact there right now, because the situation was extremely difficult, and I think what they said and what they did simply were not\u2014uh, it just wasn\u2019t the same. And that really, well, what does \u2018hurt\u2019 mean? I\u2019m in a better situation now.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when someone says something, I\u2019m always a fan of making sure we keep it that way. If I tell someone, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to do this and this,\u2019 then I don\u2019t suddenly go off to the right, you know? So, you should always keep your word, and unfortunately the Sacramento Kings didn\u2019t do that. And that\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grass Wasn\u2019t Greener On Russell Westbrook\u2019s Side<\/p>\n

Classily, Schr\u00f6der avoids throwing his former teammate under the bus. Nonetheless, there\u2019s no doubt that Kings head coach Doug Christie\u2019s perception of Russell Westbrook<\/a> had a direct correspondence to his eventual demotion.<\/p>\n

For the first 12 games of the season, Schr\u00f6der was the first unit\u2019s floor general, averaging 11.3 points and 6.0 assists per contest. He definitely had a cold spell in the five latest starts of that stretch, shooting a sickly 22.7% from the field. However, he looked much like FIBA Schr\u00f6der in the first seven outings, converting 45.7% of his field goal attempts while averaging 14.9 points per game.<\/p>\n

Understandably, most fans were focused on the team\u2019s win-loss record though. On top of that, Westbrook\u2019s status as a former league MVP means his play is filtered through that lens. While he\u2019s averaged 13.5 points and 6.1 assists per game over the past three seasons, numbers that bore similarity to Schr\u00f6der\u2019s first 12 games with the Kings, many considered him to be a significant upgrade at point guard. This despite the fact that Westbrook had remained unsigned until the 11th hour<\/a> of the offseason free agency period.<\/p>\n

At first, Sacramento attempted to start Schr\u00f6der and Westbrook together. As expected, this didn\u2019t work too well, primarily because of how it negatively impacted the defense. To be fair, both players are better than they\u2019re usually given credit for at that end. Yet, neither could be considered reliable at the point of attack. These issues were compounded by the Kings\u2019 other defensively-challenged starters, namely Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Even with Westbrook shooting an unprecedented 39.7% from 3-point range 12 games into the season, Sactown was just 3-9.<\/p>\n

The Last Word on the Kings Trading Dennis Schroder<\/p>\n

Obviously, it hasn\u2019t gotten any better for the Kings. From the time Schr\u00f6der was initially demoted from the starting lineup to now, Westbrook has started in 51 games, averaging 15.4 points and 6.8 assists per game on .424-.326-.692 shooting splits. Sacramento has gone 13-38 in those contests.<\/p>\n

Strangely, he\u2019s largely dodged accountability. Part of this is because a number of fans believe he\u2019s been judged unfavorably<\/a>, on and off the court. Whether because they idolize or simply support him, fans often insulate him from criticism. His vintage performances are painted as what he\u2019s still capable of doing nightly rather than occasionally. The Hall of Fame factor plays a role as well. To that point, so many fans jump with joy when he climbs an all-time leaderboard<\/a>, it obscures his problematic weaknesses.<\/p>\n

If Christie himself wasn\u2019t one of those fans, perhaps the Kings\u2019 would be in a better position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After leading Germany to a bronze medal and winning EuroBasket MVP honors in 2025, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,1024,4056,6,7170,254,986,477,4055],"class_list":["post-665650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento-kings","tag-basketball","tag-dennis-schroder","tag-kings","tag-nba","tag-nba-trade","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramentokings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116252420176309400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}