Schröder excited about defensive mentality Alex Mumbru brings as new Germany boss
Captain Dennis Schröder expressed excitement about the defensive mentality that new Germany head coach Alex Mumbru brings to the team. The NBA star also is committed to playing EuroBasket 2025.
There was good news for Germany national team fans as captain and leader Dennis Schröder expressed excitement about Deutschland’s new head coach Alex Mumbru, especially his defensive mentality. The NBA superstar believes the Spaniard can add some needed aspects to the German national team, and Schröder also said he is committed to playing FIBA EuroBasket 2025, hopefully with the rest of the golden generation that won the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
Part of Dennis Schröder’s final week in Germany before heading back to the United States for the NBA pre-season was a meeting with newly-named head coach Alex Mumbru.
The appointment of the 45-year-old Spaniard opened some eyes as many wondered how Mumbru would be received by a German national team that had been wildly successful under Gordon Herbert - taking third place at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, winning the title at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and then placing a best-ever fourth at the 2024 Olympics.
Mumbru was a long-time member of the Spanish national team as a player, winning the FIBA World Cup in 2006 and taking silver at the 2008 Olympics. He also reached the podium three times at FIBA EuroBasket - gold in 2009, silver in 2007 and bronze in 2013.
Mumbru finished his playing career in 2018, then became head coach later that year at Bilbao Basket in Spain. After four years with Bilbao, Valencia hired him and he coached the last two seasons in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. The German Basketball Federation penned Mumbru to a three-year deal.
Mumbru and Schröder met for the first time in Berlin, and the German point guard told the Braunschweiger Zeitung (pay subscription) that the meeting went well.
“The conversation was very positive. We had already spoken on the phone before, but this is the first time we had sat down together. He knows what he has in our team, how good we are as a group. He doesn't want to overturn everything, but wants to try a few little things to get us into the right situation. It was also important to me that we make a few adjustments,” Schröder said.
When asked about what adjustments he meant, the playmaker said: “I thought that in the games we lost, we sometimes didn't react well enough to the way our opponents played.”
Schröder spoke about Mumbru and his defensive approach to the game and mentioned that the Barcelona native played a role in Spain beating Germany in the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Semi-Finals.
“Alex Mumbru is a very defensive-minded Spanish coach. And at the EuroBasket, he was one of the reasons why the Spanish beat us in the Semi-Finals. He was one of the people behind the scenes who came up with the ideas. And the way they knocked us out of the game in Berlin was very good coaching,” Schröder said.
“I watched the game again several times. And if we could do something like that in the future, that would be brilliant.”
The newspaper asked Schröder if he will remain the Germany captain under Coach Mumbru, and he answered: “We haven't talked about that, but I think so. We performed quite well with me as captain.”
Schröder also addressed questions about if the World Cup-winning team would continue, especially after the coaching change.
“In my opinion, we should have one more summer together with the EuroBasket (2025), after which there will be a year's break before the next World Cup (in 2027),” he said.
“Of course, we had committed ourselves to three years (from 2022 to 2024), but I don't like the idea of changing everything up straight away. I think you have to look at it anew from year to year. And everyone who is healthy and fits the team best will be invited.”
Schröder said he personnally is not ready to hang up his national team shoes at age 31.
“I personally want to continue. You can see from the Spaniards and Brazilians how good the point guards are even when they are well over 30.”
After such a run, Schröder believes the team should keep going - epecially after losing their final two games: in the Olympic Semi-Finals to France and then to Serbia in the Bronze Medal Game.
“Our group is a golden generation, and it should stay together as long as possible. Besides, we would have stopped after two defeats in a row. And that can't really be the case, that's not how we wanted to approach things.”
We will have to wait and see what next summer looks like, but Dennis Schröder at least is confident in what Germany can do under new head coach Alex Mumbru and wants to help keep up the success.
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