Dennis Schröder was the biggest offseason acquisition for the Oklahoma City Thunder that wasn’t a player on the 2017-18 roster — re-signing Paul George was obviously a bigger deal. Schröder was the centerpiece of a trade that sent Carmelo Anthony and a pick to the Hawks (among other pieces going to Philadelphia), where Anthony was bought out to facilitate a signing with the Rockets.
Schröder comes in off a tough year in Atlanta in his first year not on a contender, where his defensive effort waned and he struggled with efficiency on offense. The Thunder hope being back on a contender in OKC can get him back to being the promising young point guard that led Atlanta to ship Jeff Teague out of town to turn the starting point guard job over to him. Oklahoma City needed more backcourt help to give Russell Westbrook the opportunity for breathers, and Schröder could fit the bill if he returns to the defensive form of a couple years ago.
The young German’s trademarked look has long been his “Golden Patch” of hair, but this summer that disappeared as he cut his hair back. For anyone that saw highlights of Schröder playing in Germany this summer and worried the patch was gone, fear not, because he debuted his new look on his Instagram Story and, well, he’s turned the patch into a streak of gold and blue (screenshot via r/nba user ChrowanWestbrook).
So, yeah. There it is in all its glory. Schröder’s new look will be fully on display when the Thunder open their season with the defending champs in Oakland on Tuesday night, and he’ll be heavily involved as Russell Westbrook will apparently not play due to recovery from offseason knee surgery. We’ll find out very quickly what version of Schröder has arrived in Oklahoma City, and you can also expect Twitter to have plenty to say about his new hair.
