Dennis Schroder spent less than one season with the Boston Celtics after signing with the team as a free agent in the summer of 2021. After serving as a sixth man for several months in Boston, the point guard was shipped out to the Rockets in a deal that brought Daniel Theis back to his original NBA team. Ultimately, Schroder revived his career with the Lakers last season before earning a sizable contract from the Raptors this past summer. However, Schroder was on the losing end of a game against his former team on Monday night, as the Celtics swept the season series with a 105-96 win over the Raptors.
Despite the loss, Schroder spent some time with his former teammates after the game and gave his signed jersey to Jayson Tatum. The Celtics All-Star posted the jersey on his Instagram which includes a message from Schroder stating “Go win that chip this year.”
Tatum spoke about his relationship with the Raptors point guard to reporters in Toronto after Monday’s win.
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“He’s a great guy. We only got to play with each other for five months until the trade but great guy, great teammate,” Tatum said. “Just super competitive. You understand that when you get to be around him a lot more, if he sees something he don’t like, if he did something I didn’t like, he was going to say it. We kind of had that trust that we wanted to win. We had hard conversations but I got a lot of respect for him because at his core, he just wants to win. He’s a hell of a competitor.”
Schroder has been outspoken through a tough Toronto season so far that has seen him bounce between the starting lineup and the bench for the Raptors.
“That’s just who he is,” Tatum said. “He don’t back down from nobody and he’s always going to compete. Just as a competitor, you can respect somebody like that.”
Schroder has to be wondering about what could have been in Boston after such a brief stint given the trajectory of the team after his departure. The veteran signed a one-year contract for the mid-level exception in 2021 but was traded in part to make room for new Celtics addition Derrick White along with an opportunity for Payton Pritchard at the 2022 trade deadline. Boston went on to advance to the 2022 NBA Finals and now look like a perennial contender for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Schroder is stuck behind new trade addition Immanuel Quickley in Toronto on a squad that looks to be closer to a full rebuild than contending. It looks unlikely that the Raptors will be in the postseason at this rate but it’s clear who Schroder will be rooting for if he’s watching from the sidelines.
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