Dennis Schröder Trade Was a Massive Success for Hawks and Thunder

The Atlanta Hawks bucked the trend of recent years and traded away franchise stalwart Dennis Schröder a few weeks back.

In recent years, the Atlanta Hawks front office and management have lacked a certain something when it comes to making transactions.

Franchise cornerstones Al Horford and Paul Millsap were both allowed to walk in consecutive offseasons even though the Hawks could’ve flipped them for assets at the trade deadline. Of course, the team was still trying to stay relevant in the Eastern Conference. So what did they get for keeping those two on the books instead of trading them? One playoff series win spread across the 2016 and 2017 postseasons. Not great.

Now, with a far more forward-thinking and pragmatic General Manager at the helm in Travis Schlenk, the team is making some terrific moves – including drafting John Collins and Tyler Dorsey in the 2017 NBA Draft, taking on bad money last year (Jamal Crawford) in exchange for draft picks – all leading up to perhaps Schlenk’s finest transaction yet: Trading Dennis Schröder to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Carmelo Anthony and a 2022 lottery-protected first round pick.

First, let’s look at what the Hawks gave up. While it might not be immediately clear after looking at his counting stats (19.4 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.1 RPG), DS17 was not a good player for the Hawks in the 2017-18 season.

His defense was actively harmful except on the rare occasions when he committed himself to that end, and he was also rarely looking to pass the ball to his teammates – even if John Collins was wide open rumbling down the lane on the pick-and-roll on numerous occasions.

Dennis Schröder got paid because he put forth effortful and meaningful performances off the bench when the Hawks were attempting to make noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Schröder was a microwave on those Hawks bench units, and he seemed to be always making plays on both ends of the floor as a bench contributor.

Since he is heading to a situation in which he will be the clear number two option after 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook, Schröd will be back in the situation that got him the most recognition in his career: a prolific and overqualified backup point guard.

Though there have been concerns about Schröder’s attitude, according to Ric Bucher (who wrote an in-depth profile on DS17 a few years back), Dennis Schröder’s favorite player is none other than his new teammate Russell Westbrook.

If anyone can get Schröder to curtail his carping, it’s Russ. Westbrook might also be able to coax some impressive bench performances out of Schröder, who has proved he is capable of putting up big numbers – as both a starter and backup.