With under 10 days remaining, the NBA’s trade season is entering its final stretch and, while the Boston Celtics have gone about and already made a deal back in mid-January, it most certainly was not of the magnitude that fans and media pundits alike believe they need to make in order to turn their pedestrian season around.
Despite coming into the 2021-22 season with rather high expectations, the C’s have only been able to muster up a slightly above .500 record of 27-25 through 52 games played, stationing them down in the ninth seed out in the Eastern Conference standings.
To put it lightly, this team has not lived up to expectations, and now, as we approach the deadline it’s clear that, should they wish to get back on track, they’ll need to be a bit more active on the trade market in an effort to bring on a much-needed complementary difference-maker to have run alongside the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Though there are still quite a few different ideas pertaining to who Brad Stevens and co. will be looking to bring aboard between now and February 10th, there appears to be somewhat of a consensus belief that there are three players, in particular, that the front office is already considering offloading, with the most intriguing name to prospective buyers being Dennis Schroder.
Despite playing rather well during his stint thus far with the shamrocks, due to the fact that he only signed to a one-year deal this past offseason it is almost certain that the veteran point guard will be looking to cash in and sign elsewhere once 2022’s free agency period hits which, in turn, would mean that the Celtics would be losing their highly productive talent for absolutely nothing.
Because of this, many are under the impression that, in order to prevent this hypothetical from becoming a reality, Boston’s decision-makers should look into dealing him this trade season so they can at least get something in return before he jumps ship later on down the road.
With this in mind, today we at the Houdini will pinpoint 2 potentially realistic trade destinations for Dennis Schroder:
Boston Celtics trade partner No. 1) Cleveland Cavaliers
While they generally are not viewed as the optimal landing spot for the majority of players who reportedly could be on the move, when it comes to possible trade destinations for Dennis Schroder, Cleveland actually seems to make quite a bit of sense for both the Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics.
Riddled with copious amounts of injuries, particularly within their backcourt, the surprisingly hot Cavs likely will be looking to bolster their guard position during this year’s trade deadline to give star floor general, Darius Garland, a bit more of a supporting cast as well as an easier time to take a breather (averaging nearly 35 minutes per game).
Luckily, due to their injury woes, the franchise was recently bestowed an injury exception worth up to $9 million that can be used via the trade market and, as a result, many in the know are under the impression that one of Cleveland’s main targets when looking to utilize this luxury will be the German-born baller.
At 31-20, the franchise currently finds itself sitting soundly in the fourth seed in the east’s standings with their eyes set on attaining their first postseason berth since 2018. That said, in order to keep on this successful path, general manager, Koby Altman, must look to address some of the team’s most glaring issues within the rotation, and arguably their biggest weakness is found within the scoring department.
As things currently stand, the Cavaliers rank 23rd in the NBA in points per game (106.8) and are an even worse 27th in unassisted field goal percentage (35.6).
Schroder could easily be a player who could help boost the team’s production in both categories, for throughout his career he has proven to be a top-notch isolation scoring threat in the backcourt and, this season alone, is posting 14.6 points while converting on 61 percent of his unassisted shot attempts.
His skillset could certainly help give Cleveland that “do it yourself” type of scoring threat they seemingly could use while also giving them solid replacement options for the fallen backcourt contributors in Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio.
As for the Boston Celtics, while they may not have any players that are all that intriguing at the moment, with the fact that Cleveland has their disabled player exception, Stevens could simply look at the concept of shipping Schroder out to Ohio as a way for him to get the franchise below the luxury tax which, based on their previous trade that sent Juan Hernangomez packing last month, is an objective he’s currently looking to accomplish.
While it may not be that sexy transaction many — including ourselves — are hoping to see the C’s make by the deadline, offloading Schroder while simultaneously shedding cap space would undoubtedly be a smart move to make.
Boston Celtics trade partner No. 2) Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets may have the reigning league MVP in Nikola Jokic on their side, but even still they’ve found themselves struggling at times throughout the 2021-22 campaign, and perhaps the biggest reason for why is due to their lacking backcourt production, particularly at the point guard position.
Outside of their 6-11 behemoth, Denver doesn’t have anyone who can go out there and constantly create for themselves while also getting teammates their own touches.
A guy like Dennis Schroder, however, could be a quality add to help bolster these areas within their game.
On top of the fact that the 28-year-old is a seasoned scoring threat who can go out and buy a bucket on his own, he’s also proven to be quite an effective distributor throughout his career as well.
In fact, when taking into account his abilities to score and facilitate he has managed to produce as one of the best players in each of these departments simultaneously for, upon coming into the season, he was one of only 16 players since 2016-17 to put up 6,000 points and 1,500 assists.
Being that they’re still going about this season viewing themselves as contenders, yet they’ll likely be without star point guard, Jamal Murray, through the end of the season the Nuggets may be seriously interested in improving their one spot at this year’s deadline.
Unfortunately, however, due to the fact that they’re current holders of the 12th highest payroll in the association, looking for a player to improve the position could prove to be rather difficult… unless, of course, they opted to pursue Dennis Schroder and his $5.9 million deal.
Making the money work would be an easy task for general manager, as there are plenty of expendable Nuggets players around this pay scale.
In fact, a player that the Boston Celtics have reportedly been interested in pursuing is currently employed by Denver.
That man: Jeff Green.
At a $4.5 million price tag, swapping the guard with the veteran forward would be quite an easy exchange and could, in theory, better support the shamrocks both in the now as well as in the future (has a player option for next season at the same price).
A reunion with Green would allow Boston to add on that much-needed veteran contributor to have backing up the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown instead of being forced to roll out unproven commodities such as Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith — though it’s imperative for the development of these youngsters to get playing time, where the Celtics currently find themselves, they need more trusty contributors within the rotation to help turn things around.
Though not a star by any stretch of the word, currently the forward finds himself posting solid per-game averages of 10.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and half a block per game on 51 percent shooting from the floor while also providing integral veteran leadership for Denver.
If Brad Stevens were to actually be interested in bringing Jeff Green back to the Boston Celtics, swapping Dennis Schroder for him could easily prove to be the simplest and most realistic way to go about executing such a move.