Why Dennis Schroder Has Become The Pistons’ X Factor Against The Knicks

With the score even at 97 and just over a minute left in the fourth quarter of Game 2 between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons, a second straight fourth quarter collapse seemed inevitable for the Pistons. Earlier in the frame, they held a commanding 13-point advantage, and just a few minutes before that, they were up six. However, their inexperience appeared to have caught up and the-once fluid machine could no longer generate points — converting on only one field goal in a six-minute span.

After multiple attempts at involving Cade Cunningham were thwarted by the Knicks, Dennis Schroder decided to take matters into his own hands. As the shot clock dwindled, Schroder hoisted a pull-up triple. Swish.

With so many big names changing teams during the 2024-25 trade deadline, few people batted an eye when Schroder was traded to the Pistons in early February, especially since it was his third team of the season.

But in that moment, as the ball brushed beautifully through the net, the Schroder deal felt like an absolute game-changer. In the end, he propelled the Pistons to their first playoff win since 2008 and if he keeps playing the way he has been through two games, he may just push them to their first playoff series victory since that year, too.

The Jalen Brunson Stopper

Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II are the Pistons’ most physically gifted perimeter defenders. However, they are too eager and inexperienced to handle Jalen Brunson’s foul-baiting tactics. Meanwhile, what Schroder is lacking in size and length, he makes up for with speed and guile. Schroder has the cat-like reflexes to mirror Brunson’s movements, coupled with the discipline to not bite on his convincing pump fakes.

Through two games, Brunson is just 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) on field goal attempts defended by Schroder. Meanwhile, he’s 18-of-38 (47.4 percent) against everyone else on the Pistons, per NBA.com.

A huge part of Schroder’s point-of-attack effectiveness is his ability to stick to Brunson. After all, what good is a player’s on-ball defense if they can be switched off their assignment with a simple ball-screen.

In Game 1, Brunson had a ton of success running pick-and-rolls with Karl-Anthony Towns to get Tobias Harris switched onto him. But in Game 2, those same opportunities vanished because Schroder was his primary defender, and he wasn’t going to sit back and let Harris get cooked.

Not only does Schroder’s screen navigation help maintain the Pistons’ preferred matchups, but it also bleeds precious seconds off the shot clock for New York. Thanks to Schroder, the Knicks ended up with a low percentage OG Anunoby contested jumper on the play above (which he still managed to impressively convert somehow).

Steadying Offensive Presence

Once averaging 19 points per game across an entire season, Schroder still has the means to create for himself and others in a limited role. On this Pistons team, Cunningham is the primary overseer of the offensive ship. So, all Schroder needs to do is keep Detroit afloat in the few minutes he’s resting and offer some secondary creation when the Knicks are denying Cunningham the ball (like on his go-ahead triple in Game 2 shown earlier). Through two games, Schroder is averaging 14 points and three assists on 65.1 percent true shooting.

Detroit’s success with Cunningham on the bench has always been a huge question mark. For this series, the non-Cunningham minutes are too sparse (14 minutes, per PBP Stats) to glean any serious insight. However, Schroder has been out there for all of those minutes and clearly done enough as the stand-in quarterback to give the Pistons a legitimate chance of winning both games in the fourth quarter.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned my preference toward Marcus Sasser in this role. While I still hold this stance long-term, in this particular series, Schroder’s speed, point-of-attack defense and postseason pedigree (70 playoff games) make him perfect for the job. And if the Pistons end up winning the race to four wins, Schroder may be the biggest reason why.