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nbatrades · 11 months ago

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Brooklyn Nets Add Dennis Schröder in Deal with Toronto Raptors

On February 8th, 2024, the Toronto Raptors traded guard Dennis Schröder and forward-center Thaddeus Young to the Brooklyn Nets for guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Brooklyn also received a trade exception.

When the Toronto Raptors added veteran forward Thaddeus Young in a trade deadline deal with the San Antonio Spurs, it was the continuation of a theme. Standing 6-8, Young joined a Raptors team with a cadre of long and athletic forwards at the height of 6-7 to 6-9 such as Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.

Young was the veteran sage off the bench for a Toronto team looking to get back into the playoffs. 31-23 after a win right after the deadline's end, the Raptors went 17-11 the rest of the way to finish fifth in the East with a 48-34 record.

Young was a mentor to forwards like Barnes and Precious Achiuwa and also established himself as a solid playmaker and screener. He made 26 appearances with the Raptors and averaged 6.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.7 APG and 1.2 SPG in 18.3 MPG.

Toronto matched up with the fourth seeded Philadelphia 76ers. Philadelphia took an 18-point lead at halftime of the series opener. 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey led the way with 38 points as Philadelphia won 131-111. 76ers center Joel Embiid recorded 31 points and 11 rebounds in Game Two as Philadelphia took the game 112-97.

Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Raptors came out aggressive and led by 15 points in the first half at home, but the 76ers made a run. Both teams traded leads in the fourth quarter of Game Three. After the Raptors took a 95-90 lead with 2:03 left, they went scoreless the rest of the fourth quarter. The 76ers scored the final five points to send the game to overtime.

In the overtime, Embiid hit a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to win the game. The win gave Philadelphia a 3-0 series lead. Facing elimination, the Raptors stepped up. Pascal Siakam had 34 points. After playing just 19 minutes and 17 seconds in the first three games, Young became an x-factor in Game Four. The forward played nearly 30 minutes and had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists while guarding Embiid for parts of the game. Toronto won the game 110-102.

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Toronto established a 14-point lead early on in Game Five and dominated on the road. Siakam had 23 points and 10 rebounds as the Raptors coasted to a 103-88 victory.

Game Six was close in the first half but Philadelphia took control in the second half, outscoring Toronto 70-36, eliminating the Raptors with a 132-97 rout. Outside of the eruption in Game Four, Young was relatively quiet. In six games, he managed 3.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.7 APG and 0.8 SPG in 14.5 MPG.

Young re-signed with the Raptors on a two-year, $16 million deal. Other then a deal to sign veteran forward Otto Porter, the Raptors kept their core together for the 2022-23 season.

After a strong performance the previous season, there was hope the Raptors could build off of it. The team began the season a solid 11-9 but losses would pile up soon. Toronto proceeded to drop nine of its next 11 to fall to 13-18.

At the trade deadline, the Raptors were in 10th place with a 26-30 record. The club made a move, acquiring center Jakob Poeltl from the San Antonio Spurs. Lacking depth at the center gave the Raptors hope in the latter stages of the season.

Toronto played well enough, moving up to ninth in the East after going 15-11 the rest of the season. It left them with a 41-41 record. Young began the season in a bit role, even receiving DNPs from coach Nick Nurse. But Young handled it well and later saw an uptick in minutes.

However, Young was out of the rotation for most of the season's latter stages. He did not play in the team's last 14 games of the regular season. Young appeared in 54 games (nine starts), and compiled 4.4 Ppg, 3.1 RPG, 1.4 APG and 1.0 SPG in 14.7 MPG. '

As the ninth seed, the Raptors qualified for the nine seed versus ten seed play-in game. They hosted the Chicago Bulls in an elimination game. The Raptors led by 11 in the first half, but Chicago outscored Toronto 37-24 in the fourth quarter to win 109-105 and eliminate the Raptors from the playoffs. Young did not play in the game.

The disappointing finish to the season led to the start of a re-tool for the Raptors. Head coach Nick Nurse was fired. The Raptors replaced Nurse with Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Darko Rajaković.

In free agency, the Raptors suffered a significant loss when All-Star point guard Fred VanVleet left Toronto to sign a multi-year deal with the Houston Rockets. Needing to replace VanVleet, the Raptors signed guard Dennis Schröder to a two-year, $26 million deal.

Rumors throughout the season continued to swirl for the Raptors into the offseason. Starters Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were both likely headed to free agency in the 2024 offseason and questions arose. Would the Raptors re-sign the two homegrown talents and last ties to the team's 2019 NBA championship?

The Raptors kept the two and seemed to want to stay competitive. Adding Schröder seemed to endorse that way of thinking. The point guard was able to find a team that paid him while giving him an opportunity to be a lead guard.

The club got off to a decent 8-8 start during the 2023-24 season but soon went 4-11 to fall to 12-19. Toronto began to make moves. Anunoby was the first to go, as he was dealt with Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the New York Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second round pick. A few weeks later, the Raptors moved Siakam to the Indiana Pacers for Bruce Brown, Kira Lewis Jr., Jordan Nwora and three first round draft picks.

The deals sapped the Raptors of its veteran talent and now the team was pivoting to a rebuild around young forward Scottie Barnes. With the team continuing to lose and falling to 12th in the East with an 18-33 record, the Raptors made two more deals before the trade deadline. The club acquired Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk in a trade with the Utah Jazz. The Raptors also sent Schröder and Young to the Brooklyn Nets for the expiring contract of Spencer Dinwiddie.

Schröder's brief time in Toronto began with him as a starter. But by late December, the Raptors wanted to hand Barnes more ballhandling responsibilities and moved Schröder to the bench. Part of the reason Schröder signed with Toronto was a chance at a starting opportunity which faded even further away with the addition of Quickley as the team's point guard of now and the future.

Schröder appeared in 51 games (33 starts) with Toronto and contributed 13.7 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 6.1 APG and 0.9 SPG in 30.6 MPG. Young began the season out of the rotation but saw minutes in January and February thanks to injuries and the trades. He appeared in 23 games (six starts) and compiled 5.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.2 APG and 0.8 SPG in 15.2 MPG.

Over two years, Young managed 5.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 1.7 APG and 1.0 SPG in 103 career games. The forward shot 53% from the field, 29% from the three-point line and 55% from the charity stripe.

Spencer Dinwiddie joined the Brooklyn Nets after he was sent by the Dallas Mavericks with Dorian Finney-Smith to Brooklyn in the Kyrie Irving trade before the 2023 trade deadline. The deal saw Dinwiddie arrive for his second stint in Brooklyn.

Shortly after Irving was dealt, fellow Nets superstar Kevin Durant aimed for a trade (for a second time) and was soon sent to the Phoenix Suns for a massive haul including Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, and several first round draft picks and pick swaps.

By dealing away Irving and Durant, Brooklyn was officially out of any championship contention talks, but since they didn't own their own draft picks, the franchise wanted to stay competitive. WIth the several veterans they acquired, Brooklyn looked to keep up in the East playoff race the rest of the year.

32-22 at the trade deadline, Brooklyn went 13-15 the rest of the season, finishing sixth in the East. Dinwiddie was elevated to starting point guard after the trade.

Though his shooting numbers (28.9% on 5.7 three-point attempts per game and 46.5% effective field goal shooting) were subpar, Dinwiddie flourished as a playmaker, averaging what would've been a career-high 9.1 APG if stretched out over an entire year. In 26 games, Dinwiddie also put up 16.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG and 1.1 SPG in 35.3 MPG.

The first round of the 2023 playoffs saw the Nets match up with the 54-28 Philadelphia 76ers. A priority for the Nets in the series was containing MVP Joel Embiid. In the series opener, the Nets doubled Embiid almost every time he touched the ball but it opened up opportunities for his teammates.

The 76ers set a franchise record with 21 three-pointers and Philadelphia won 121-101. In Game Two, 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey had a game-high 33 points and the 76ers outscored Brooklyn 52-35 in a 96-84 victory.

Game Three was tense. Embiid was nearly ejected in the early stages of the game for kicking Nic Claxton in the groin area after the Nets center taunted him. 76ers guard James Harden was ejected late in the third quarter after picking up a flagrant foul penalty two for a forearm to Nets forward Royce O'Neale's groin area.

The 76ers had an 11-point lead in Game Three at halftime but the Nets came back and took a lead heading into the fourth. Both teams fought back and forth. Brooklyn led by five with five minutes left, but the 76ers went on a 12-4 run over four minutes and 22 seconds to gain a three-point edge with 44 seconds left.

Dinwiddie was fouled with 39 seconds left and split a pair of free-throws. After a Philadelphia miss, Dinwiddie had a chance to tie but his layup attempt was blocked by Embiid with eight seconds left. Philadelphia would hold on for a 102-97 victory.

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Embiid missed Game Four with a sprained right knee. Still, Philadelphia had 15 offensive rebounds and outscored Brooklyn 56-40 in the second half as they took control and won 96-88, completing a 4-0 sweep of the Nets. Dinwiddie started all four games in the sweep, producing 16.5 PPG on 43.1% from the field, 3.3 RPG, 6.5 APG and 1.3 SPG in 39.8 MPG.

After the season, the Nets kept its roster together. The club had two first round picks back-to-back (21st and 22nd) and selected forward Noah Clowney and guard Dariq Whitehead respectively.

Brooklyn was solid to start the 2023-24 season. The team was tied for seventh in the East, with a 12-9 record after its first 21 games. However, the Nets lost 11 of the next 14 games to fall to 15-20. The losses would continue as Brooklyn fell to 20-30 at the trade deadline.

Dinwiddie was expected to share point guard responsibilities with Ben Simmons, but Simmons missed significant time due to injury. Dinwiddie was a starter but became extremely passive as a scorer during the season. In January, Dinwiddie's refusal to be aggressive came under some criticism as he went a stretch of eight out of 10 games attempting less than ten shots.

Brooklyn needed Dinwiddie to be aggressive as its overall offense struggled throughout the season. With his contract set to expire after the season, the Nets decided to move on and deal Dinwiddie at the deadline.

During the '23-'24 season, Dinwiddie appeared in 48 games with Brooklyn. The 6-5 guard put up 12.6 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 6.0 APG and 0.8 SPG in 30.7 MPG. In his second stint with Brooklyn, Dinwiddie made 74 appearances, averaging 14.0 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 7.1 APG and 0.9 SPG. He posted shooting splits of 40/31/79 in that time.

In the deal, the Nets created a $20.3 million trade exception by fitting Young into a trade exception the Nets had from sending Royce O'Neale to the Phoenix Suns on the same day and fitting Schröder into a trade exception the team created from the Kevin Durant deal in 2023. Brooklyn sending Dinwiddie to Toronto created that new exception.

Soon after the trade, the Raptors waived Dinwiddie. Releasing the guard allowed Toronto to get out of a $1.5 million bonus for games played. After flirting with both the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers, Dinwiddie opted for a deal for the rest of the season with the Lakers.

The Nets waived Thaddeus Young immediately after the trade as well. He later signed a deal with the Phoenix Suns for the rest of the season. As the lone player remaining from the trade, Dennis Schröder initially came off the bench in four of his first five games with the Nets. He started every game he played in the remainder of the year after. Overall, the guard appeared in 29 games (25 starts) and contributed 14.6 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 6.0 APG and 0.6 SPG in 32.0 MPG.

The Nets were 20-31 when Schröder made his debut with the club. Soon after, the Nets fired head coach Jacque Vaughn and assistant Kevin Ollie took over on an interim basis. Brooklyn went 12-19 over the final 31 games to finish out of the postseason with a 32-50 record.

In the 2024 offseason, the Nets seemed to entertain a rebuild. First, the Nets were able to re-acquire the rights to their own first round picks in 2025 and 2026 from the Houston Rockets while sending out swap rights to the Phoenix Suns' first round pick in 2025, a 2027 first round pick from the Suns to the Rockets.

Finally, Brooklyn sent Houston the rights to the more favorable of either the Dallas Mavericks or Suns' first round pick in 2029. The Rockets also acquired the right to swap their own first round pick for the less favorable of either the Mavericks’ or Suns' first round pick.

In conjunction with that convoluted deal, the Nets traded featured piece Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in a six-player deal that brought back five first round draft picks and a pick swap.

The combined deals was an admission that the Nets would be building for the future. The club now had control of its own draft pick in 2025, giving it a chance to lose and obtain a top pick. The Nets also hired Sacramento Kings assistant coach Jordi Fernandez as head coach.

Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Nets were expected to be one of the worst teams. There was also an expectation that the club could sell off veterans like Schröder, Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith to accumulate draft picks and rack up losses for a higher draft pick.

Brooklyn was an early surprise team, going 9-10 in the first 19 games. Schröder was playing at an exceptional level early on. Though he was playing well, it hurt Brooklyn's chance to draft high in the lottery. After 25 games, the Nets were 10-15 and in 10th place in the East. At that point, Brooklyn dealt Schröder with a conditional 2025 second round pick to the Golden State Warriors for guard De'Anthony Melton and three future second round picks in 2026, 2028 and 2029.

Schröder was having one of his finest seasons. The 6-1 guard started all 23 games he played in and accumulated 18.4 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 6.6 APG and 1.1 SPG in 33.6 MPG on efficient shooting numbers. In 52 career games with Brooklyn, Schröder managed 16.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 6.3 APG and 0.8 SPG. The guard had shooting splits of 44/40/85 during that time.

Dennis Schröder on the Nets roster (via New York Post):

"Every single day, I try to get better, and we’ve got a lot of talent in this locker room. I remember when Mikal [Bridges] and Cam [Johnson], they was on the Phoenix team, and we played them in the first playoff round. Really, really talented players. Lonnie [Walker IV], we made it last year to the Western Conference Finals. He had really big games for us. "And everybody else in that locker room have great intentions of winning. And I just want to every single day give everything I have to win the day or win the game when we have one."

On the difficulty of moving to a new city from a personal perspective:

"Having a family, having three kids, a wife, it's not easy. But at the end of the day, nothing really changed. Of course, I go to a new city, new situation. But at the end of the day, we play basketball for a living and really extremely grateful for it. And can't wait to get to know everybody in the locker room, front office, everybody who is in this organization and get to work."

His take on Brooklyn as a city:

"Big city. I’m from Germany, Braunschweig, 250,000 people only, really small city, but at the end of the day, like I said, I mean, I'm a family person, always with my kids, my wife and my loved ones and of course the traffic is gonna hurt a little bit. But other than that, I mean, New York is always a big city, but it was always fun when I was here. Fans in Brooklyn was great as well. So I'm just excited, you know, take it day by day and try to get some wins."

Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks on the team's priorities after making two deadline deals (via Clutch Points):

“We go into these days always thinking about future flexibility. Try to maintain some level of sustainability when we're looking at, how's the team look this year? How's it gonna look in six months time from now? How's it gonna look in three, four years? "We feel pretty good about adding the players that we added, but at the same time, you're keeping some of those draft assets as well. And again, that future flexibility.”

Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster on the team's overall trade deadlines and creating flexibility with the Dennis Schröder deal (via Toronto Raptors):

"We did our heavy lifting about a month ago. So I feel like this trade deadline we cleaned up a lot of things and we addressed some of the things we talked about after the OG [Anunoby] and Pascal [Siakam] trades... "Financially we were able to you know gain some more flexibility in the summer with the Dennis trade."

Image via Getty Images/Michael Reaves

#Dennis Schroder #Thaddeus Young #Spencer Dinwiddie #2024 #2023*24 Season #2024 Trade Deadline #Nets #Raptors

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