Dennis Schroder appeared to be hitting his stride this season with the Brooklyn Nets, but the Golden State Warriors snapped up the 31-year-old guard two months before the NBA trade deadline.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Schroder was traded – along with a second-round pick – from Brooklyn to Golden State on Saturday in exchange for De’Anthony Melton and three second-round picks. Star Stephen Curry gets an additional guard for the Warriors, who is trying to advance in the Western Conference.

The Nets essentially hit a home run by welcoming Schroder to Brooklyn for his debut season. He averaged 18.4 points and posted a career-high 6.6 assists in 33.6 minutes in 23 starts for the Nets. That leaves the franchise in contention for an unlikely run – Brooklyn is 10-15, seeded 10th in the Eastern Conference, but only 0.5 a game behind the No. 8 seed Indiana Pacers. Schröder, in particular, became the top scorer in Brooklyn and surpassed three-time All-Star Ben Simmons.

MORE NBA

How Celtics’ Payton Pritchard feels about early NBA Award candidacy

by Gio Rivera
4 min reading

Celtics (snubbed?) in anonymous NBA front office ranking poll

by Gio Rivera
3 min reading

Now Schroder is headed to Golden State, a team that is unsurprisingly entering the trade market early. The Warriors separated their splash brother duo by allowing Klay Thompson to leave and sign with the Dallas Mavericks in free agency last offseason, leaving Curry and the rest of Golden State in dubious territory early in the season. Without Thompson, the Warriors were 14-10 as the No. 6 seed in the West, but needed a strong presence to provide consistent offense – something teammates like Buddy Hield and Andrew Wiggins have struggled with.

For the Nets, the trade could signal Brooklyn’s early capitulation. Teams like the reigning champions Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and New York Knicks are well ahead of the Nets this season. Brooklyn has had encouraging performances of its own with wins over the Bucks, Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies, but the Nets front office still has a lot of work to do before teams consider Barclays Center as the home of a legitimate playoff contender.

Schroder is playing under an expiring $13 million contract and is scheduled to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in 2026.