The first big domino of trade season fell on Saturday afternoon as ESPN’s Shams Charania announced the Brooklyn Nets have agreed to trade veteran point guard Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors. Schroder has revived his career to an extent, having an outstanding year for the Nets, running their offense while averaging 18.6 points and 6.6 assists per game, shooting almost 39% from three.
Frankly, Schroder was playing too well as the Nets are hoping to lose as many games as possible this season, lining themselves up for the best possible draft pick. The Warriors were in a perfect position to pounce, adding another offensive creator to help Stephen Curry.
Things aligned perfectly for Golden State; they were able to match Schroder’s salary by including just De’Anthony Melton who is on an expiring $12.7 million deal. Melton tore his ACL and will be out for the season. He served no purpose for a Warriors team trying to contend this season and also won’t hinder Brooklyn’s pursuit of tanking.
Warriors trade three 2nd-round picks to Nets in Schroder deal
To sweeten the deal for Brooklyn, the Warriors sent three 2nd-round picks back and received one (likely protected) in return. 2nd-round picks have become a major form of currency around the league in recent years. They are the main assets being moved in many deals, especially for non-superstars.
These picks have become incredibly valuable and it’s no coincidence that smart teams have been stockpiling them whenever possible, and cashing them in at opportune times. Shrewd asset management by the Warriors allowed them to jump in with a competitive offer and their heap of 2nd-round picks was enough to grease the wheels and land them a very good rotation player.
Nuggets wasted 2nd-round picks to offload bad contract
It sure would be nice if the Nuggets were able to dump a few 2nd-round picks to a team in exchange for a meaningful role player. That’s basically exactly what Denver needs at the moment, but sadly they can’t make any such move because all of their future 2nd-round picks are gone.
The worst part? They dealt their last three precious 2nd rounder just to dump Reggie Jackson to the Charlotte Hornets. The team was so desperate to get off of the final year of his $5 million deal. To make matters worse, the team signed Jackson just one season earlier and inexplicably gave him the $5 million player option that he happily opted into.
So Calvin Booth handicapped the Nuggets with an awful deal, then surrendered the last of their precious resources to undo that mistake. The team got nothing back in the Jackson deal and now finds themselves in a position where it’s nearly impossible to upgrade the roster.
The Nuggets probably wouldn’t have been players for Schroder specifically, but this is just a painful reminder of the position the team is in. They have completely mismanaged their assets and it may end up costing them several years of Jokic’s prime.