The Raptors and Nets have agreed to a trade, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that guard Dennis Schröder and forward Thaddeus Young will be heading to Brooklyn, while guard Spencer Dinwiddie is being sent to Toronto.
A free-agent addition in the offseason, Schröder is making $12.4M this season and has a $13M cap hit for 2024-25. Young ($8M) and Dinwiddie ($20.36M) are both on expiring contracts. Dinwiddie will earn a $1.5M bonus if he appears in two more games this season, reports ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, while Dinwiddie didn’t formally request a trade out of Brooklyn, both he and the Nets are happy he’s headed out of town.
The Nets can acquire Schröder using their $18.1M traded player exception, which would have expired tomorrow, observes cap expert Yossi Gozlan. They’ll create a new TPE worth $20.36M — Dinwiddie’s outgoing cap hit — and it will be good until February 8, 2025.
It’s essentially a salary dump for the Raptors since moving off Schröder’s salary for next season will give Toronto more financial flexibility to re-sign its own impending free agents. Guard Immanuel Quickley (restricted) and newly-acquired big man Kelly Olynyk (unrestricted) fall into that category.
Schröder has had a solid season, averaging 13.7 PPG, 6.1 APG and 2.7 RPG on .442/.350/.852 shooting in 51 games (30.6 MPG), including 33 starts. But the 30-year-old was clearly no longer in Toronto’s long-term plans, particularly after acquiring Quickley from New York in a previous in-season trade.
As for Young, the longtime veteran forward was valued for his locker room presence and production when called upon. However, he’s 35 years old and doesn’t fit the Raptors’ timeline. This will be Young’s second stint with the Nets, having previously played for Brooklyn from 2015-16.
Dinwiddie, 30, has averaged 12.6 PPG, 6.0 APG and 3.0 RPG in 48 games (30.7 MPG) this season, but has struggled with efficiency (.391/.320/.781 shooting line, .530 true shooting), and isn’t a great defender. It’s unclear how much of a role he’ll have with the Raptors, but it’s worth noting that Dinwiddie has performed well as a secondary and tertiary creator in the past.
Schröder will be a major upgrade for the Nets on the defensive end, and they won’t have to worry about losing him for nothing in free agency since he’ll be under contract until 2025.
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