On the Eve of December 15th it was announced by ESPN Insider Shams Charania that the Brooklyn Nets would be sending veteran PG Dennis Schroder and a 2nd round pick to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for De'Anthony Melton and 3 2nd round picks. December 15th is an important date for the NBA as all players signed in the offseason would become trade eligible, with many Nets fans expecting Nets GM Sean Marks to move off some of the veterans in order to expedite the rebuild. Historically, Marks has not been proactive in making trades, making the vast majority of his moves in the offseason or on the day of the trade deadline. Many were left surprised, as there were a large number of fans that did not expect Marks to make a trade in December.
Schroder has been a floor raising PG for the Nets this season, averaging 18.4 points, 3 rebounds, 6.6 assists shooting a career high 38.7% from 3PT on career high volume. The Nets did not expect Schroder to be as impactful as he has been, with him being a critical reason behind the Nets to a 10-15 record, competing for a play-in spot rather than a top 5 lottery pick.
With the Nets being better than expected, there has been a group of Nets fans that wanted to abandon the tank, prioritizing culture over a higher draft pick. The issue behind this mentality is that Marks paid a premium to re-acquire the Nets’ 2025 and 2026 1st-round picks from Houston after the initial James Harden trade made back in 2021, trading away multiple Phoenix and Mavericks picks acquired in the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades. Not tanking in what is expected to be a generational draft class, after trading a large sum of draft picks to get your original picks back, would be horrific asset management. Regardless of whether fans like it or not, in order to compete for a championship and have long-term sustainable success, you need to draft a franchise player, and you are more likely to accomplish that with a top-5 pick than you are anywhere else in the draft.
Given that Marks typically doesn’t do deals in December, this implies that even he didn’t expect the Nets to be as good as they are. To alleviate this issue, he traded the best ball-handler on the team. When Schroder is off the court, the Nets are -9.8 points per 100 possessions worse compared to when he’s on the court. With the Nets parting ways with him, they are going to be losing a lot more games. In exchange for the Nets’ 2nd-leading scorer, they received De'Anthony Melton’s $12.8M expiring contract plus multiple 2nd round picks. Melton is likely going to be waived by the Nets to open up a roster spot due to him being out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.
Ultimately, this is an excellent trade by Sean Marks. While the Nets only got a few 2nd-rounders, they’ve increased the projected value of their own 1st-round pick by moving off Schroder. This trade has proven that despite there being a group of fans that want to compete and continue trading for superstars, Marks is committed to this rebuild and drafting a franchise player in the upcoming 2025 NBA draft. Regardless of where the ping pong balls fall, this is the correct strategy, and Marks is ready to lose in the short term for the sake of long-term success.
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