Dennis Schroder is a quirky, headstrong, opinionated, ball-dominant avatar for playing basketball exactly the opposite of the egalitarian way the Warriors want and love to do it.
He’s a constant headache — his eight previous NBA stops over 12 seasons is all the proof you need of that. He wears out his teammates and his welcome almost as quickly as he puts up 30-point games.
But, in this iffy Warriors moment, Schroder does something else just as well as anybody in the league: He drives opponents crazy, too. And he’s been doing it this season, at 31 years old with the dead-end Nets, as well and as efficiently (new word for him!) as he’s ever done it.
For a reminder, just flash back to his 31-point demotion of the Warriors’ defense in a Nets come-from-behind victory just a few weeks ago. Yes, I think that might’ve caught the Warriors’ attention, by the way.
All of this explains why the Warriors aggressively sought this deal and agreed to acquire Schroder on Saturday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, by sending future second-round picks and the injured De’Anthony Melton’s expiring contract to the Nets (necessary in the deal because the Warriors are hard-capped at the first apron). Because Schroder and Melton both signed contracts last summer, neither is eligible to be officially traded until Sunday.
This is not an ideal-world Warriors move — the way, say, acquiring Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala were perfect moves for everybody and inevitably set the stage for multiple championships. This is a real-world move. There are no guarantees with this one and there are certainly risks involved.
But it’s a good move because the Warriors had to do something to alleviate the pressure on Stephen Curry to score at all times and especially at the end of games, when defenses send everybody at Curry and dare other Warriors to beat them. The other Warriors, after Melton’s injury, have not, to this point, done so well in this situation. Which got the alarm bells ringing inside Warriors HQ.
No, the season isn’t quite fully slipping away from the Warriors yet; they’re 14-10, still in fifth place in the Western Conference. But the frustrations have been building. The good vibe of their quick start has diminished. Neither the team nor its franchise player can wait around forever before making necessary repair jobs.
The Warriors had to do something different. And man, Schroder is sure different.
I thought Curry’s post-game comments after another late-game collapse in Houston on Wednesday would either a trigger this kind of move or were an indication that he knew a move was coming soon. Probably parts of both — a last, and perhaps necessary, nudge.
“We’re talking about it,” Curry told reporters of the Warriors’ end-game mishaps. “We’re experimenting. That’ll be the defining point of our entire season — if we figure it out or if we don’t. Because we’re playing well enough to win most games. That’s a good sign and a bad sign.”
Once Curry, the most important person in the history of this franchise, said the words “defining point,” there had to be something coming. And here it is.
Of course, Schroder might be too kooky to fit into the Warriors’ locker-room culture for too long. But Schroder is only signed through the rest of this season, so it’s not like the Warriors are committing to a long-term commitment here.
The nagging part of this is that Melton absolutely did fit with the Warriors, both on the court and off, and wanted to stick around the team while he rehabbed his torn ACL. That’s not to be. The Warriors had to move on once they lost Melton this season — and after Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, and Lindy Waters were given a handful of games to try to fill the void. Each was unsuccessful.
In a way, the Warriors are trying to summon the spirit of Jordan Poole from 2022 — before he got paid, before he got punched by Draymond Green, before he really started to get out of step with this team … back when Poole was such a key, confident offensive counterweight to Curry during the Warriors’ last championship run.
And there’s a chance that Schroder has matured into something more than just a hired gunner. Schroder, who is shooting 45.2% overall this season and 38.7% from the 3-point distance (both much higher than his career numbers), also is averaging a career-best 6.6 assists a game. And he can play on-the-ball defense when he’s motivated. Teamed up with Draymond, I think Schroder will find the motivation.
We don’t know precisely what Steve Kerr wants to do, but Schroder figures to be a classic heatwave sixth man who can lead the second unit while Curry rests then close games alongside Curry to punish those Curry-clamping defenses. It’s the Poole role. It’s the role Melton was moving into.
Now, Hield can move to a more supplementary responsibility. Podziemski, Waters, and Moses Moody are quality depth. If Schroder works out, the Warriors’ rotations don’t look as strained as things have been getting recently.
Curry, Schroder, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, and Draymond as the Warriors’ closing group — yeah, I think that is a scary group of names for opponents to contemplate.
Of course, Schroder might immediately start doing some very odd things or simply decide that it’s his offense now, please step aside Mr. Curry. The Warriors need some swagger, but too much of it can disrupt everything. They also want Kuminga get his chances to develop into a true secondary scorer.
But now the Warriors have this slow period while the NBA Cup concludes in Las Vegas. After Sunday’s game at Chase Center against Dallas, the Warriors have three days off and then a game Thursday in Memphis. And they’ll have a nice run of games before the deadline to decide what else, if anything, they need to do.
They could still trade Kuminga. They could put Wiggins into any package. They control all of their future first-round picks except the one in 2030, which is owed to Washington in the Poole deal (protected 1-20). They can still make a mega-trade, if something comes available. But in the meantime, there’s no time to waste.
This is a smart move by the Warriors because they had to do something now or risk messing up this season and because Schroder has every motivation to make this relationship successful. And if he can’t do that, the Warriors tried, at least.
They’ve had several chances to acquire Schroder in the past but never really considered it. In each of those previous moments, it might’ve been impossible to blend Schroder into the Warriors’ belief system. It probably wouldn’t have been worth the stress. But circumstances change.
The stress is already there: Curry can’t carry the Warriors forever, but, with some help at the end of games, he might have just enough left for one more playoff run. The Warriors have to keep betting on Curry while he’s still playing like this, and trading for Schroder is a canny double-down.