The Golden State Warriors are apparently looking for upgrades after a weak phase – and are said to have already asked Brooklyn about Dennis Schröder. In a way, the 31-year-old is an ideal fit for the “Dubs” – but he may just represent an alternative plan.
By Ole Frerks
For a month, the Golden State Warriors portrayed themselves as a team that might not have to do anything. After failing to find success in the summer with trade targets like Lauri Markkanen and Paul George, they simply started the season with a huge squad full of good players but with just one star – and regularly used 12 players, while 12 of the first 15 Games were won.
Actually, this is not a proven approach. Especially not in the playoffs, where rotations shrink and the quality of individual players becomes more important. The last few weeks have given a kind of foretaste of this: in a pretty tough schedule, six out of eight games were lost recently, although a slight dip in form from Stephen Curry didn’t exactly help.
It’s no surprise, and even after the start of the season, it was likely that rumors would start doing the rounds again. Golden State has already been linked to Jimmy Butler and LeBron James, among others – “the Warriors are on the hunt for a star,” said “ESPN” insider Shams Charania a few days ago.
The most important thing in brief
A player in this category therefore represents Plan A – although there may also be a smaller, more easily implemented solution. For a kind of plan B, Golden State is probably looking at a team that gave them one of the defeats of the last few weeks. Three Brooklyn Nets players are said to have piqued their interest, including DBB captain Dennis Schröder.
An ideal upgrade
Now Schröder is not Butler or LeBron. In a way, he seems like an ideal, simple upgrade for Golden State: One of their guards, De’Anthony Melton, has torn a cruciate ligament and will miss the rest of the season, earning almost as much as Schröder. From December 15th, Melton’s salary (12.8 million) could be exchanged one-for-one for Schröder’s (13), although the “Dubs” would probably have to pay draft picks on top.
In theory, Schröder could take Melton’s place and promptly fill a gap offensively: The Warriors primarily thrive on off-ball movement, but apart from Curry, they currently have no reliable on-ball creator in the squad who can support themselves and others can provide litters.
Players like this are needed in the playoffs – Schröder is currently showing in Brooklyn how much he can give an offense if it is tailored to him (only four players currently hold the ball in their hands longer than him). With 18.6 points and 6.5 assists with solid efficiency (career-high 58.3% true shooting), he is probably having the best season of his NBA career.
NBA highlights: 31 points! Schröder dismantles Warriors
Of course, the Warriors wouldn’t suddenly completely change their style with him – but he could bring in another dimension and also take more of the pressure off Curry. Aside from the fact that Schröder is a good off-ball player himself and should also find his way in the traditionally unconventional Warriors offense, especially if his shots from outside continue to fall as well as they did in Brooklyn (38.5% in Career- High 6.5 threes per game).
Still (too) small?
Defensively, Schröder should also fit in with the fourth-best defense in the league – like Melton, he is a strong point-of-attack defender and is able to check bigger players, although in lineups with (for example) Curry, Schröder and Buddy Hield would be too small. Either way, the Warriors have the problem of being rather small on the wing.
Maybe they could solve it with a bigger deal. Golden State has also expressed interest in Nets forwards Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith – Johnson in particular would be interesting, especially since he is a much better shooter (43.4% with 7.6 three-pointers per game) than all of the Warriors’ forwards. Squad, and defended significantly better than Hield, for example.
However, Johnson earns $22.5 million – finding a suitable trade for him immediately becomes much more complicated for the Warriors, who are hard-capped and are therefore hardly allowed to take in a cent more in trades than they give away (Schröder-Melton just about fits below the limit).
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As an example: Johnson and Schröder for Melton, Kevon Looney, Gary Payton II and Jonathan Kuminga would work financially, but… they would probably not make the leap to becoming a contender at the level of OKC or Dallas. They would get better, although opinions about Kuminga vary widely. In this scenario, they would not have found their second star, despite a fairly large investment.
Star trades are complicated
The bottom line is that it makes sense that the Warriors are looking for a bigger caliber player first and foremost. They won’t have many chances with Curry anymore – at 36 years old, the two-time MVP will need more than a squad full of good role players to make a deep run next to him. That was true in the summer, and it remains true now.
Maybe an aging star forward like Butler or LeBron can actually be the solution, although trades with the Heat or Lakers become even more complicated because both have almost no room to maneuver as second-ahead teams, which is different with Brooklyn. This is (unfortunately) the reality in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which makes large trades much more difficult to achieve. Everything has to fit pretty precisely.
The Warriors will probably still explore this route first. Which doesn’t mean that a deal for Schröder can’t be made. For the “Melton + Pick(s)” trade package, the Braunschweiger would actually be the best possible direct equivalent that the Dubs could get.
It may just be that this package is already needed for something else.
