Dennis Schroder and the Hawks agreed to a four-year rookie contract extension worth $70 million Wednesday.
The point guard broke the news when he posted a picture on social media of general manager Wes Wilcox and himself signing the new contract. The contract is guaranteed at $62 million, with $8 million in incentives, for an average annual salary of $15.5 million. The contract length and amount were confirmed according to a person familiar with the situation. The Hawks officially announced the deal Wednesday evening that will keep Schroder in Atlanta through the 2020-21 season.
The Hawks had until Oct. 31 to sign Schroder to the extension. If they did not reach an agreement, Schroder would have become a restricted free agent after this season. Now, he will be locked up for approximately $15.5 million per season. The deal begins next season and Schroder will make $2,708,582 this season.
The move comes the day before the Hawks open the regular season, the first with Schroder as the starting point guard. The team traded Jeff Teague during the offseason and promoted Schroder to the starting job. The 23-year-old Schroder enters his fourth NBA season. In 206 career games, including 16 starts, he averaged 8.9 points, 3.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 18.3 minutes. He will see considerable more time as the starters.
“I am excited to sign this long-term deal with the Hawks,” Schroder said in a statement released by the team. “Since coming from Germany as a rookie, this organization and the entire city of Atlanta has embraced me and watched me grow. I would like to thank my teammates, the coaching staff and the front office for having faith in me. I’m determined to keep improving as a player and I believe that our team has a chance to accomplish some special things together.”
Wilcox confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that the team and Schroder and his representatives had discussions about a possible extension.
Schroder averaged 3.7 points and 1.9 assists as a rookie. His statistics improved to 10.0 points and 4.1 assists and 11.0 points and 4.4 assists the past two seasons. As Schroder played more, his turnovers increased from 1.2 to 1.9 to 2.3 each season.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer called the team’s commitment to Schroder a natural evolution and the “next logical step” recently.
“Over the past three years, we have watched Dennis grow into an elite competitor and an emerging, two-way player,” Budenholzer said in a statement. “We look forward to his continued development and are excited to make this long-term commitment.”
Schroder said recently that he did not feel pressure from the added responsibility of his new role as a starter.
“They say it’s my team,” Schroder said. “I’m the point guard. For me, pressure is not really there because I’ve got so many guys who play on a (high) level. … I just try to do what I can to help the team win. Pressure is not there.”
The Hawks drafted Schroder in the first round (No. 17 overall) in 2013. He is the only first-round pick since his draft class on the roster until this year.
Earlier, the Hawks re-signed Kent Bazemore to a four-year, $70 million contract this summer as an unrestricted free agent.
