"It's not easy": Schröder discusses Raptors trade to Brooklyn
The Toronto Raptors may not have made their biggest moves of the season at the 2024 NBA deadline, but they still did quite a bit of work on Thursday, parting with four players on the day.
The most impactful player leaving Toronto was point guard Dennis Schröder, who had started 33 of 51 games for the Raptors this year in his lone season with the team.
Schröder was dent midday to the Brooklyn Nets along with Thaddeus Young, in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie. With Dinwiddie and Young being waived shortly after the trade, it seems like the deal really was more about finding a change of scenery for Schröder and a fresh start with a new group for the Raptors.
The veteran point guard averaged 13.7 points, 6.1 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 51 games this season during his time in Toronto. He had signed a two-year deal with Toronto in the offseason worth $26 million, but emerged as a likely trade chip once the franchise seemed committed to a rebuild after struggling to start out the year.
Getting in late the night before after playing in Charlotte with Toronto, Schröder says a phone call from Mark Bartelstein woke him up — and broke the news of his trade.
“He called me a couple of times, I woke up and he told me that I’m, you know, going to Brooklyn,” Schröder told reporters following the Nets’ contest on Thursday night. “I mean, having a family, having three kids, a wife, it’s not easy, but at the end of the day, nothing really changed. Of course, I go to a new city, new situation, but at the end of the day, we play basketball for a living, and I’m really extremely grateful for it.”
After starting the first 29 games of the year for Toronto, he was relegated to coming off the bench for the first time on December 27. It’s not quite clear what role exactly he’ll have with the Nets, who are one spot ahead of the Raptors in 11th in the Eastern Conference and two games back of the final play-in spot.
“It don’t matter what the circumstances are, I just want to win, you know, and having that mentality of doing it as a team,” Schröder added.
Schröder’s full press conference is available below: