The Atlanta Hawks will soon take the keys to the car and hand them over to Dennis Schröder.

In July, the Hawks sent out longtime starting point guard Jeff Teague in a three-team trade that landed promising rookie Taurean Prince. Schröder, who has started 16 of his 206 NBA career games, is now poised to become a full-time starter for the first time since he entered the NBA.

In fact, despite being just 22 years old, Schröder holds the third-longest tenure on the Hawks. The only two Hawks who have been around longer are Mike Scott and Kyle Korver, both of whom arrived a season before.

To stretch the analogy a bit, it's probably fair to say that Schröder has ridden in the car before and, at times, even sat in the front seat. In his three seasons with the Hawks, his minutes have climbed from 641 to 1516 to 1621 as he developed into one of Atlanta's most important bench players.

Schröder wanted a chance to drive, though, as any young player would. Think about it this way: No ambitious person enters the workplace, starts their first job and says, "Yep. This is it. I never want to get promoted. Please let me continue to play this auxiliary role forever."

And so it was for Schröder. He was careful to couch the notion in respectful terms, noting in his end-of-season interview that he would patiently wait his turn while trying to improve.

"In the future, I want to be a starting point guard, that's for sure," he said. "Everybody knows it. In the situation (that) I was (in) this year, I was fine with it. I played my minutes, and I just tried to get better. When the coaching staff and everybody decides that I get the team, then I'm going to be ready for it."

The Hawks made the move. The Driver's Ed course is over and Dennis Schröder has the steering wheel in his hands.

A long path of preparation

The funny thing about being a wunderkind in a team sport is that it can sometimes be tough to take the reins of a team. For most of Schröder's pro career, he has "played up a level", so to speak, using his elevated skills to keep up with older, savvier players. Being the youngest player on the team doesn't lend itself to immense leadership opportunities.

For instance, before being drafted by the Hawks, Schröder played a pivotal role for the New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig in the 2012-13 season. He made the leap that teenaged prodigies sometimes make, jumping up from a lower division to lead the Phantoms in both points and assists in his one full season there. Even in that situation, the 18-year-old couldn't have reasonably called the Phantoms his team in the manner in which basketball fanatics use such pronouns. According to the head coach of the German national team, Chris Fleming, Schröder had help directing that team.

"He was probably their best player, but they had other guys who led. He was a very young kid," Fleming said in an interview in March.

Schröder's strong performance with Braunschweig led the Hawks to pick him with the #17 pick in the 2013 Draft. There were early hints that he was special, such as when he scored a game-high 21 points in a 2013 preseason game against fellow countryman Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks. On the other hand, those glimpses came sporadically enough to show that he needed time to develop. He ended that preseason with averages of 3.4 assists and 3.8 turnovers per game. He made 2 of 15 three-point attempts.

Schröder wasn't yet ready for heavy rotation minutes – a perfectly normal predicament for a young player, even if it momentarily confirmed the suspicions of those who doubted him when he left the German Basketball Bundesliga.

"When he left Germany," Fleming said, "there were a lot of people who said, 'No way. Dennis Schröder? No way.'"

In addition to the other challenges, Schröder had two adjustments to make: First, he had to adapt to life in a foreign country. Second, he had to learn how to respond to a head coach, Mike Budenholzer, who pushed him beyond the things he thought he was capable of.

"My first year was really hard," Schröder said. "He was really hard on me. He didn't even talk to me like that. But I knew why he was doing it."

The far end of the bench was a lonely place for a teen 4,000 miles from home. Schröder found a friend and role model in a slightly older teammate.

"It's tough coming from another country," said Phoenix Suns guard John Jenkins, who played with Schröder on the Hawks from 2013 to 2015. "When he first got here, he was going through some tough times. I had just had my back surgery, so I was going through some tough times as well. We were going through it together. I saw a kid that had a lot of potential and was really hungry to learn and to work hard. I put my arm around him and taught him as much as I could, you know, being a young guy myself."

The bond between Jenkins and Schröder grew. They started eating dinners together every night on the road, and soon the shared off-the-court time spilled over to Atlanta. When Jenkins got married this summer, Schröder was there to support his friend.

By the start of his second season, Schröder was ready for a bigger role. Two weeks into the regular season, he assumed the job of backup point guard – a role he would never relinquish – in a loss to Charlotte. The Hawks went on to win 39 of their next 44 games. As Atlanta hummed along nicely, Schröder quietly soaked up lessons like a sponge.

"He learned a lot just by watching people and listening to people," Jenkins said. "He's a great student of the game."

Schröder averaged 10.0 points and 4.1 assists despite playing fewer than 20 minutes per game. Perhaps more importantly, his assist rate was up, his turnover rate was down, and he was constantly improving on defense.

"He's an unbelievably confident kid,” Fleming said. "His belief in himself, coupled with his work ethic and the work that the Hawks have done with him, has been huge in helping him develop. His confidence is, for sure, one of his biggest assets."

There's a fine line between confidence and cockiness, and Fleming puts him squarely on the good side of it.

"His bravado comes off as a very hard shell," Fleming added, "but when you get to know Dennis Schröder, the person, you find out he's a great kid. He's got some different sides to him that you maybe don't see when you watch him play on the court."

Some stats

The Hawks have an adjustment to make as they incorporate Schröder and Dwight Howard into the starting lineup. Will the twosome fit well together? Will they mesh seamlessly with the other starters? It is obviously tough to say for sure, but some clues may lie in how Schröder played with his teammates last season.

Howard comes to Atlanta with a reputation for being able to put pressure on the rim. When he sets the screen for Schröder in the pick and roll, defenses need to respect the threat of him scoring as a roll man. But this time a year ago, the same things were being said of Tiago Splitter. Therefore, in looking for perspective on how things may shake out this season, it's reasonable to ask, 'How did Schröder fare when playing with Splitter last season?'

Here's a list of players with whom Schröder played 200 or more minutes in the 2015-16 season. The Hawks outscored their opponents with each and every two-man combination in the list, but the ones near the top were especially effective. Lineups that included the combination of Schröder and Splitter outscored their opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions.

Obviously, this analogy isn't perfect. Splitter is a better passer, Howard is more able to make plays over the top of a defense, and most importantly, Schröder-Howard will be facing starters instead of the bench players that the pairing of Schröder and Splitter faced. The numbers do, however, alleviate some of the concerns about having Schröder play offense with a center who stays in the paint.

A bigger concern with regard to the offense is how Schröder himself will fare with his jump shot. In the 2014-15 season, he found his stroke in January at the exact same time that the Hawks took off into the stratosphere. And in 2015-16, the performance of the Hawks with Schröder on the court (net rating per 100 possessions) strongly correlated with the percentage of shots Schröder made from the perimeter.

Schröder has to make jumpers to coerce defenses into chasing him over the top of pick and rolls, instead of sitting back and playing under them. His speed and ability to use the rim are most advantageous when defenders have to defend him closely instead of retreating and waiting for him to come to them.

In past seasons, Schröder spent extensive time working with Hawks assistant coaches, including current Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, on the countertactics used to penalize defenses that play under picks, such as using a screen more than once. But nothing will keep defenses as honest as just being able to make a jump shot when it is conceded. His ability to knock down those shots will be a key to the Hawks’ offensive threat.

Headed into this summer, Schröder said that his biggest priority was to work on his jump shot, and in recent weeks he has spent time with Hawks staff doing exactly that.

Playing and not playing for the German national team

Schröder had originally made plans this summer to help the men's German national basketball team compete in Eurobasket 2017 qualification, which begins a week from now. However, the team later announced via Twitter that Schröder would not participate in the qualification tourney. (Schröder was quoted in one tweet as saying that the 2020 Olympics were still in his sights.)

Despite his absence this summer, Schröder still has positive takeaways from his time playing from Germany.

"It helped me a lot the last two years," Schröder said. "I made a step every year. I think it's just great to compete against different types of players. I think it helps me keep being a leader and keep being better – off and on the court."

It's that last part that is most intriguing. In the sum total of all Schröder's top-level basketball experience, there isn't a clearer instance of him taking the reins of a team than Eurobasket 2015 – even with all-time German basketball star Nowitzki in the fold.

"I think the last two summers were good for him in terms of being a lead guy," Fleming said about the player he coached in the event. "That's an important rule for him to play. I thought he had an excellent tournament."

The German offense ran distinctly through Schröder's hands, and he averaged 21.0 points and 6.0 assists per game to lead the team on both counts. At times, Germany struggled, as Schröder, Nowitzki, and most everyone else associated with the team struggled with their outside shots. That's the sort of thing that can happen in a short tourney that spans just a handful of games.

The lack of shooting hurt the Germans even more critically because FIBA's rules, unlike the NBA's, do not have a provision to prevent paint-packing zone defenses. Without the long-range shooting to combat it, opponents retreated and made a lot of traffic for Schröder near the basket.

Despite the tactic, Schröder thrived.

"He had less room to work. He did a great job adjusting to it," Fleming said. "On the flip side of it, there was probably less athleticism in front of him as he operated in less space. It probably balances. But I thought he did a good job jumping from NBA to FIBA rules."

Germany went 1-3 at Eurobasket in their first four games, but entered the fifth and final game of group play with a chance to advance. If they beat Spain, led by Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic, Germany would advance to the next stage. If they lost, they would be eliminated (and their best chance at Olympic qualification would be lost too).

Nearing the end of a hard-fought, intense game, Spain led by seven points with a minute left. Then Schröder went to work. He drove and assisted Nowitzki on a three. On the next possession, he pushed the ball in transition, spun around a defender, and found teammate Maodo Lo for another three.

Ahead by three points with around ten seconds left, Spain deliberately fouled Schröder, who made both free throws. By the time Germany fouled to get the ball back, they trailed by three points with 7.9 seconds left. Schröder dribbled the length of the court (with a defender yanking his jersey for a large part of it), sensed the defender fouling and rose to shoot and draw three free throws.

Schröder made the first two and missed the third. Spain won, Germany went home.

Even in defeat, Schröder played like a dynamo. Zooming all over the floor, he tallied 11 points, 3 assists and 4 rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.

Fast forward a year and a month, and the Hawks will, like Germany, take the key to the team and put it in Schröder's hand. They will need him to defend. They will want him to drive to the hoop for bunches of buckets and set up his teammates for their scoring chances too.

But most importantly, they need him to lead. They need him to play with a headiness that belies his age and a selflessness that harmonizes with his older teammates. They need him to set an example for the rookies that inspires a work ethic and a drive to succeed.

In three NBA seasons, Schröder has shown age-appropriate doses of all of these qualities, accelerating in skill and maturity each year. For the Hawks to make the best of their 2016-17 season, he will have to do it all over again and shift up one more gear.

Story by KL Chouinard

Twitter: @KLChouinard