The Oklahoma City Thunder will have to adjust on the basketball court without Dennis Schroder, who is leaving the bubble for the birth of his second child, but there wasn’t even a thought to try to persuade him to stay.
General manager Sam Presti told media on a Zoom call on Wednesday that he would have encouraged Schroder to be with his family if there was doubt in the guard’s mind.
“If he told me he wasn’t, I would have told him to leave,” Presti said. “Of course he should do that. Of course he should be there for that. That’s much more important than any basketball game at any point in time.”
On July 14, Schroder said his wife was due to give birth in three to four weeks, which would put the labor on track to be sometime in the first or second week of August.
Schroder will likely miss the pre-playoff games and may miss more, depending on how long he stays with family and what the league requires of him once he re-enters the bubble.
Presti said the organization has worked with the league to understand the logistics of what Schroder will need to do to return to the bubble and the court.
Head coach Billy Donovan also gave support to the star sixth man.
“He’s gotta make decisions that are best for his family and I’m totally supportive of that,” Donovan said Saturday.
“These guys all have families. They’re human beings and they’re people … I know from a distance how important it is for him to be a father and a husband.”
