Golden State Warriors guard Dennis Schroder owns Basketball Lowen Braunschweig, a German league team based in his hometown. As such, more than most players who are stressing about Thursday’s trade deadline, the 31-year-old understands the other side of it.
“I got my own team in Germany. I know how it works,” Schroder said in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson on Monday. “For me, it’s a business at the end of the day.”
Schroder said that being traded to a different city is a “luxury problem,” not a “real problem.” He added that “your salary is still the same” if you wind up on a new team.
At the same time, Schroder does not find the trade deadline exciting. He thinks it’s “terrible for the league” that it has become an event that overshadows the games on the schedule this time of year. He doesn’t like that players have no control over where they might land, as there are numerous factors — the personality of the coach, the style of play, the available playing time, etc. — that can change the trajectory of a player’s career for the worse.
After seeing the Dallas Mavericks dump 25-year-old franchise player Luka Doncic out of the blue mere months after he led them to the NBA Finals — a move that devastated their fan base and inspired some fans to protest — Schroder told NBC Sports Bay Area that something has to change.
“It’s like modern slavery,” Schroder said. “It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that. They got to change that a little bit.”
In the locker room after the Warriors’ 104-99 win against the Orlando Magic, Schroder acknowledged that “everybody who’s in here is blessed.” He added that he is “grateful that we’re here and that we can live this every day.” He added, though, that it’s “kind of crazy that the organization can tell you, ‘We want you to be team-first, but you’re going over there.’ It’s a lot.”
Schroder, who has been traded five times in his 12-year NBA career, does not seem to be proposing that trades should be outlawed. He believes, though, that the collective bargaining agreement should protect certain players, particularly those who have spent significant time with one franchise and had success with that franchise.
“It can’t be someone bringing somebody to the NBA Finals,” Schroder said, referencing the Doncic deal.
Had Doncic stayed in Dallas, this coming offseason he would have been eligible to sign an extension worth a projected $345 million over five years. Now that he’s a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, that supermax contract is no longer available to him. Players notice details like this, and Anthony Edwards is far from the only one who has come to the conclusion that absolutely anybody can be moved in light of the Doncic trade.
“Luka Doncic just got traded and got five f—ing [All-NBA] first teams,” Schroder said. “All-Stars, he brought money to them, NBA Finals last year and $117 million he can’t sign now because he got traded, and that’s no state income tax [in Texas]. From now on, I see it even more crazier than it was, because to trade somebody like that, nobody’s safe. Not even Steph Curry‘s safe probably when I see that. It’s a f—ed up business.”
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Golden State is 25-24 and 11th in the Western Conference this season. The Warriors have reportedly been aggressive about trading for a star before the deadline. Curry may be one of the few players who is genuinely untouchable, but longtime Warriors like Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney, the latter of whom has spent his entire 10-year career with the team, have have been in trade rumors dating back to last offseason.
“Wiggs almost won the f—in’ Finals MVP in 2022 and now he’s on the trade block,” Schroder said. “Kevon Looney won three championships here. He was one of the keys to winning the championship, and now he’s on the trade block right now.
“I understand for the first year, second year, but after a certain time … I don’t know.”
Schroder added that “they have to write something in the CBA to get something fixed.” The CBA is negotiated between the league and the National Basketball Players Association. Even if enough players agree that this is a problem that must be solved, the NBPA could propose potential solutions when the current agreement expires.
The Warriors acquired Schroder in a trade from the Brooklyn Nets in mid-December, and the timing of the deal suggested that the front office wanted the option to flip him as part of a larger deal this week. Wednesday will mark 60 days since the trade, at which point the Warriors will be allowed to aggregate Schroder’s salary with others for salary-matching purposes. At his introductory press conference, Schroder said that he’d ideally “end my career here,” but he would have “no problem if they have other visions.”
In an appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today on Tuesday, Andscape’s Marc Spears reported that Golden State is trying to acquire players like Jimmy Butler, Nikola Vucevic and Myles Turner, but has not been able to finalize a deal yet. He then noted that it is helpful that Schroder is about to be eligible to be included in such a trade.
