After landing in hot water recently for comparing the NBA trade deadline to “modern slavery,” veteran guard Dennis Schroder endured a wild 24 hours leading up to, and through the spectacle.
The 31-year-old German was traded twice during the 24-hour period, finally landing with the Detroit Pistons just minutes before the deadline. Senior NBA insider Chris Haynes reported on Thursday afternoon that the Pistons “plan to keep” Schroder.
The 2013 draft pick was reportedly sent from the Golden State Warriors to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday as part of the five-team blockbuster that shipped Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat to the Bay Area. Then on Thursday, he was sent from Utah to Detroit to help complete the Butler deal, which also saw veteran forward P.J. Tucker moved from South Beach to the Toronto Raptors.
Thursday’s deal was Schroder’s third time being traded in less than two months, as he was acquired by the Warriors in a move with the Brooklyn Nets in mid-December.
Tucker has had an eventful start to February as well, being traded three times in five days. The former second-round pick (who hasn’t played this season) was sent from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Jazz on Saturday and then from the Jazz to the Heat on Wednesday.
ESPN NBA Writer Details Schroder’s ‘Crazy 18 Hours’
Schroder has moved from the sixth-worst team in the Nets to the 11th-seeded Warriors (25-25) to the seventh-seeded Pistons (25-26) this winter, giving him a good chance to contribute on a playoff squad.
After a historically bad 14-68 season in 2023-24, Detroit has shattered expectations over the first two-thirds of the 2024-25 campaign. The Pistons are just four games behind the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers (28-21) in the Eastern Conference standings, three games in back of the fifth-place Milwaukee Bucks (27-22) and one game shy of the sixth-seeded Heat (25-24).
Schroder could see time as Detroit’s backup point guard — with former first overall pick Cade Cunningham getting the starting nod. He discussed his new opportunity with ESPN’s Marc J. Spears on Thursday, shortly after the trade was reported.
“(It’s) great to be in the best league in the world. New opportunity to go out there (and) help a team make the playoffs,” he said, per Spears.
The insider also noted that it’s been an especially wild 18-hour period for the former 17th overall pick.
“Crazy 18 hours for vet Dennis Schröder. Schröder works out pregame with Warriors in Utah last night and is pulled out of showers to be told of trade to Jazz,” Spears wrote on social media. “He recently signed a lease in SF and expected to stay at GS. Jazz don’t want Schröder. Now Schröder is heading to Detroit.”
Why Did Schroder Call Trade Deadline ‘Modern Slavery?’
Schroder’s whirlwind trade deadline comes less than one week following his controversial words, comparing the event to “modern slavery.”
“It’s like modern slavery,” he told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson. “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.”
Schroder also called the NBA a “cutthroat” and “f—ed up” business, though added that it’s a “business at the end of the day.”
“But still grateful that we’re here and that we can live this every single day. I think everybody who’s in here is blessed,” Schroder said, according to Johnson. “But if you really think about it, it is 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.”
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