The German basketball players start the EM summer. Again with Dennis Schröder, whom the national coach continues to see as the leader.
Before the upcoming World Cup qualifiers in Estonia on Thursday (June 30th, 2022) and on Sunday against Poland, one player in particular is in the focus of the German basketball players: Dennis Schröder is back in the national team after a three-year break. Most recently, Schröder wore a DBB jersey at the 2019 World Cup. The disastrous performance with the preliminary round, accompanied by debates about bad team chemistry, was at the time also the leader and playmaker from the NBA charged.
Schröder then assured that he would take responsibility for the failure of the World Cup and promised compensation, also to the DBB. However, the NBA star was absent from the great success of the past year, the first participation in the Olympic Games since the Nowitzki era, due to unresolved insurance issues.
Now Schröder is actually back in the DBB team after three years – but with it the old questions of whether the team will really get stronger with him or whether he will NBA-Director may fall back into old solo patterns.
Herbert: Schröder can be a “difference player”.
For the national coach Gordon Herbert this question does not arise, for him Schröder is still the leader of the team. “We are very happy that he is there. He can be the difference player for us“, stressed Herbert.
This applies to the two games in the World Cup qualifiers, where the German team is leading the preliminary round group after three wins in a row and has every chance of qualifying for the World Cup finals in summer 2023 in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. But all the more for the highlight of the season, the home European Championship, which will take place in Cologne and Berlin from September 1st.
The DBB and national coach Herbert gave out a medal as a goal. This seems quite ambitious, given a preliminary round group with France, Lithuania and the Slovenes NBA-Superstar Luka Doncic. On the other hand, the German team, in addition to Schröder, can build on a number of other established NBA players: with Maxi Kleber (Dallas) and Daniel Theis (Boston), who with their teams in the playoffs got very far. And young star Franz Wagner, who in his first year in the NBA was voted into the top five rookies.
Tinkering with the squad for the home EM
They will not be with the DBB team for the two World Cup qualifiers, nor will the national players from the two top German clubs Berlin and Munich, who faced each other in the BBL final almost two weeks ago and ended an exhausting season with more than 80 games in have the Euroleague in their bones. Of the players who were nominated against Estonia and Poland, next to Schröder and Isaac Bonga, the second NBA-Professional, only veteran Johannes Voigtmann and playmaker talent Justus Hollatz are possible.
Tinkering in the background Herbert That’s why he’s already in the squad for the European Championships, where he can then draw on the full range of personnel, so the hope is. And so he should have more talent available than almost any national coach before him: especially in the big positions, for example Berlin’s Johannes Thiemann, the most valuable player in the final series in the BBL, made another leap in development. The experienced Tibor Pleiß, who won the final in the Euroleague played well at Anadolu Efes is again an issue for the national team.
Schröder: “We don’t have to hide from anyone”
“We have a lot of quality, we don’t have to hide from anyone“said playmaker Schröder with a view to the home EM. “It’s a new chance to make basketball even bigger in Germany. Everyone is already hot“, Schröder said before leaving for Estonia.
The finals of the European Championship will take place in Berlin, where the team “still an open account“, said Schröder. At the home European Championship in 2015, the DBB team was eliminated after four defeats in the preliminary round of the European Championship.
The national coach is also relieved to have Schröder on board for the qualifying games. “The window is very important to us. A lot of people are already thinking about the Eurobasket, but our focus is on the two qualifiers“, said Herbert. Two wins would be important, also because the points in the qualification are taken into the subsequent main round. Then it would also look excellent with the World Cup ticket for 2023.