Stephen Curry was not pulling punches after the Warriors went scoreless for the final three minutes against the Rockets this week and ended up getting knocked out of the NBA Cup: “The pattern of scoreless droughts down the stretch has to be addressed or else we’ll be a mediocre team.”
Golden State’s search for more shot creation reportedly has them on the cusp of trading for veteran point guard Dennis Schroder, a story broken by Marc Stein of the Stein Line and confirmed by Shams Charania of ESPN. The trade cannot go through until Sunday when De’Anthony Melton becomes eligible to be traded (Dec. 15). That’s when he and a pick are headed to Brooklyn to complete the idea (if not Sunday, expect it soon after). Both Melton ($12.9 million) and Schroder ($13 million) are on expiring contracts.
Schroder, in his 12th NBA season, knows how to create for himself and others, and has played a key role as the hub of the Nets’ offense this season averaging 18.4 points and 6.6 assists a game. Schroder is known for a good pull-up jumper, but he can also work off the ball. This past summer, Schroder led Germany to a fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, a year after he led his home nation to the FIBA World Cup title.
Schroder instantly provides someone who can take some ball-handling and shot-creation pressure off Stephen Curry and Jonathan Kuminga. Schroder also has been the guy Nets’ coach Jordi Fernandez trusted in clutch minutes, something the Warriors need if they are going to avoid more blown fourth-quarter leads like against the Rockets.
For Brooklyn this is about tanking the future. The Nets are 10-15 and sit 10th in the East. If the season ended today, they would be in the play-in and have the No. 9 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft (depending on the lottery). Losing Schroder and bringing in a player out for the season — Melton suffered a torn ACL last month — will make it much harder for this team to compete on a nightly basis, helping those draft odds.
The Warriors have been star hunting in the trade market since before last summer — Jimmy Butler’s name has come up, there was a long-shot LeBron James prayer — but that was always highly unlikely to come together during the season. The Warriors are just about $500,000 below the first tax apron and didn’t have much room to take back additional salary, which complicated things. For example, to make the money work in a Butler trade it would have required a third team and still taken four Warriors players going out the door (Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Melton and someone at or near the minimum such as Gary Payton II) that would not have made the Warriors better.
Schroder gives the Warriors more shot creation for the rest of this season but doesn’t tie up their books this summer, when they still want to go big-game hunting.
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