Dennis Schroder is heading to Cleveland. It is his twelfth NBA team. He is now one franchise away from tying the all-time record for most teams played for in a career.
The Cavaliers acquired Schroder from Charlotte in a small trade that will not move the market but does move Schroder further into the NBA record book. Only Ish Smith has suited up for more franchises, and Smith just retired last year. Schroder, 32, is not retiring anytime soon.
For Cleveland, this is depth. Darius Garland is the starter. Donovan Mitchell has been playing extended minutes off the ball. Schroder gives the Cavs a real backup point guard who can score, defend at a decent level, and eat 20 minutes a night without needing a designed play to touch it.
For Charlotte, this is asset management. The Hornets have four young guards they want to develop and no need for Schroder on a team that will spend the year sorting out its rebuild. They picked up a second-round pick and moved on.
Schroder has bounced around because he is a very specific kind of player. He can create shots. He can guard smaller guards. He can play backup minutes on a good team. He is also priced out of most starting jobs and does not have the size or the outside shot to fit every rotation. That combination gets you signed a lot and traded a lot.
His resume by now reads like a road map of the last decade of the NBA: Atlanta, Oklahoma City, the Lakers, Boston, Houston, Toronto, the Nets, Golden State, Detroit, Sacramento, Charlotte, and now Cleveland. Twelve stops. Only Smith’s 13 is ahead of him.
Schroder joked about it in a quick statement after the trade cleared, saying he has now lived in more American cities than most people visit in a lifetime. He also thanked Charlotte for the short stay. He has stopped bothering to sound surprised.
The interesting part for Cleveland is what this means for their rotation. Head coach Kenny Atkinson liked to lean on Ty Jerome last season. Now Schroder is here. Jerome is going to need to earn his minutes or he will lose them.
Cleveland is trying to get past the second round. That means depth and defense. Schroder is not a needle-mover. He is a piece. On a team with Mitchell, Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, pieces are what the Cavs need.
If Schroder plays out the year in Cleveland and signs somewhere else next summer, that will be team number 13. Ish Smith will officially have to share the record. And Schroder, who is still a rotation-quality NBA guard at 32, will keep taking the calls.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
