As fast as it became possible — De’Anthony Melton couldn’t be traded until Dec. 15 — it was done: The Brooklyn Nets traded Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors for Melton and three second-round picks.
Who are the winners and losers from this first big trade of the NBA trade deadline season? Let’s break it all down. But first, here is how the trade officially works out:
Golden State receives: Dennis Schroder, 2025 Miami second-round pick (protected through 37).
Brooklyn receives: De’Anthony Melton (out for the season with torn ACL), Reece Beekman (guard on two-way contract), three second-round draft picks (2026 and 2028 from Atlanta, the Warriors 2029 pick).
Winner: Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry
Since last summer when they chased Paul George and Lauri Markkanen — or even the previous trade deadline when they inquired about LeBron James — the Warriors have been looking for a high-level shot creator to put next to Stephen Curry so they can chase another ring. They have struck out with the big names.
Enter Dennis Schroder, who may not be as sexy a name but is a quality shot creator and having one of his best seasons for Brooklyn. Schroder is averaging 18.4 points and 6.6 assists a game for the Nets and is shooting a career-high 37.8% from 3 this season. Steve Kerr got a good look at Schroder this summer during an Olympic tune-up game in London, where Schroder scored 13 points with 10 assists against Team USA in a game the Americans won by just four. Schroder led Germany to the medal round of the Paris Olympics, where they finished fourth.
Kerr will play Schroder with Curry at times so defenses can’t load up on him the same way. However, the bigger issue is the Warriors are getting outscored in the minutes Curry sits – their offensive rating drops fast from 119.1 to 101.7. Golden State has struggled to generate offense in those minutes, and Schroder will help with that.
Loser (by design): Brooklyn Nets
The Nets got worse with this trade, but that is winning for them.
Brooklyn’s management wants to be in the mix for one of the top picks in the upcoming NBA draft, but they’ve been too good — Brooklyn is 10-15, would make the play-in if the postseason started today, and would enter the lottery with the No. 9 pick. Give first-time coach Jordi Fernandez credit, he got buy-in from the veterans and has the Nets playing better than expected, including Schroder.
Without Schroder running the offense, it will be much harder for the Nets to compete night-to-night, which is the plan. Expect other veterans on the Brooklyn roster — Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic, Cameron Johnson, Nic Claxton — to be in trade talks and possibly get moved before the Feb. 6 deadline as well. It’s not a fire sale in Brooklyn, but it is a sale.
Winner: Dennis Schroder
The Warriors will be Schroder’s eighth team in eight seasons — welcome to the occasionally brutal business of basketball. Still, this is good for him.
Schroder’s role changes. He’s going from being the primary shot creator with the ball in his hands all the time to working off it more in a different, player-movement-heavy system. This will be more like his 2022-23 season with the Lakers, when he played next to LeBron James as the dominant ball handler (and that was one of Schroder’s less efficient seasons, but he was still an essential part of that team).
However, Schroder is in a contract year and is moving to a bigger stage and a team expecting to make noise in the postseason. Fit in, help the Warriors make that run, and a bigger payday for the 31-year-old guard could be out there.
Loser: Brandin Podziemski
After his standout rookie season, the Warriors front office bet on Brandin Podziemski to be able to step into the backup point guard role. That hasn’t worked out, Podziemski has hit a sophomore slump. This trade was a reaction to that.
To be fair, this isn’t all on Podziemski — he played just 13% of his minutes as a point guard in his rookie season, but this season (while he has officially played more at the two and three, depending upon whose measure you go with) there has been a lot more point guard responsibilities and playmaking put on him. He’s learning that role, but it’s a process. Podziemski also just can’t find his shot, he’s taking a higher percentage of shots from 3 but hitting just 24.7% of them (he shot 38.5% from deep as a rookie) and he’s had a drop-off in shooting percentage at the rim as well, hitting just 52.4% of those.
Podziemski is young and still has a bright future ahead of him, but development is never linear and he has taken a step back this season. Adding Schroder to the mix should change Podziemski’s role back to something he is more comfortable with and with that he should rebound.
