Dennis Schröder will join the Golden State Warriors. The timing of the trade comes as a bit of a surprise, but it makes sense from the Brooklyn Nets’ point of view.
The trade has not yet been officially announced, but there are reasons for this. The trade block for 85 players who signed new contracts in the summer only ends today, Sunday. This also applies to De’Anthony Melton, who is to join the Brooklyn Nets in return. The guard injured his cruciate ligament in November and will not play again this season.
This already shows the direction of the Nets. Brooklyn does not want to play for the playoffs this season and would rather build a new team. Schröder was simply too good for that, and it is also because of him that the Nets are in tenth place in the Eastern Conference and have already won ten games.
To put that in perspective, all prominent betting sites set the line for Brooklyn at 18.5 wins for the entire season. Brooklyn was thus one of the surprises in the first quarter of the season, and the Schröder trade means the team’s leading player and only real point guard (Ben Simmons is not a real point guard) is gone.
Due to his good performances, Schröder’s value was never higher, so it was only logical to act on the first possible day. Two second-round picks aren’t that much, but it’s likely that not much more was possible, given that Schröder is already 31 years old and his contract expires in the summer.
At the same time, the Nets are getting a player in Melton who won’t play again this season and also doesn’t have a contract for the coming season. The Nets could become an important player in the upcoming free agency, according to ESPN there could be up to $70 million available to Brooklyn.
Brooklyn: More trades will follow
The Nets could also go a different way and use their money to take on bad contracts in exchange for pick compensation, thus consistently continuing the rebuilding process in New York. Either way, after the first few weeks it quickly became clear that Schröder was simply too good for this team and it was only a matter of time before the right offer came along.
At the same time, this was likely just the beginning for the Nets. Dorian Finney-Smith, in particular, is likely to be the next player to be the subject of numerous rumors. Cam Johnson or Nic Claxton could also be trade candidates in the near future.