The Sacramento Kings are somewhat resembling the OKC Thunder of yesteryears, as they currently roster four separate players who, at one point in time, played significant roles out in Bricktown.
One of their most recent additions to this collection was point guard Dennis Schroder, who signed a three-year, $44.2 million deal early on in this summer's free agency period.
Popular belief is that the veteran's decision to land in Northern California was largely influenced by his desire to take on lead floor general duties, which, considering the club's current assortment, appears to be the most likely role he'll be playing to kick off 2025-26.
Even star forward Domantas Sabonis (a fellow former Thunder) has been rather vocal about his claim to the primary one spot, as he recently told reporters "we have a starting-caliber point guard" in Schroder.
However, though Sacramento may have gotten an overall talent boost with the 31-year-old's arrival, as Oklahoma City found out during his two-year stint with the franchise, they may soon discover that the best way to utilize Schroder is by having him come off the bench.
Dennis Schroder's best years came while coming off bench for Thunder
Many may look to his counting stats with the Nets last season as reason to believe Schroder can still serve as a quality starter in the association on a full-time basis.
However, while 18.4 points and 6.6 assists on 45.2 percent shooting from the floor and 38.7 percent shooting from deep may be impressive on the surface, these contributions were far from successful in aiding toward winning ways, as Brooklyn went a miserable 9-14 through 23 games with him at the starting one.
Frankly, it wasn't until he migrated out to Motor City at the trade deadline that he began to produce at impactful and beneficial rates.
This largely seemed to be due to Detroit's decision to slide him into a sixth man role off the pine, where he dropped 10.8 points and 5.3 assists per game while finishing with the third-best plus/minus on the team out of those who logged over 20 games.
This way of utilizing Schroder was determined to be the preferred approach back during his career-best 2019-20 season, where he posted stellar averages of 18.9 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.6 rebounds on 46.9 percent shooting from the floor and 38.5 percent shooting from distance and finished second in the running for Sixth Man of the Year with the Cinderella Story, fifth-seeded Thunder.
Schroder has proven to be at his best when providing change-of-pace energy and playing with a bucket-getting mentality off the bench. Unfortunately, due to the construction of Sacramento's roster, they seem destined to lean on him as more of a quarterback on the court and a set-up artist for their primary weapons of Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine.
In time, the Kings are destined to learn the hard way that the guard's ball-dominant style of play is not the proper fit to have operating as lead guard, especially with their crew.