Heard about the NBA trade in my sleep
World champion captain Schröder has to go to the big city
After just six months, Dennis Schröder, the leader of the legendary 2023 world champions, is leaving the Toronto Raptors for New York. The trade on NBA Deadline Day is a surprising one after numerous rumors surrounding the 30-year-old.
Dennis Schröder is leaving the Toronto Raptors in the NBA professional basketball league after a good six months and moving to the Brooklyn Nets. The club from New York announced this. In exchange for the captain of the German world champions and Thaddeus Young, Spencer Dinwiddie goes to the Canadians. The NBA's transfer deadline ended on Thursday. “My agent called me a few times. I woke up and he told me I was going to Brooklyn,” said the 30-year-old during his introduction to his new franchise.
Schröder, the most valuable player (MVP) of the 2023 World Cup, signed in Toronto for two years and $26 million (€24 million) before the current season. Brooklyn is the seventh stop in North America for the 30-year-old. Before joining the Raptors, the point guard played for the Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets. Schröder was under contract with the Lakers twice.
In purely sporting terms, the trade does not move Schröder, who was previously linked to the Minnesota Timberwolves, forward. Brooklyn is eleventh in the East with 20 wins and 31 defeats, Toronto (18:33) is twelfth. It's getting tight in the race for a playoff spot. With an average of 13.7 points and 6.1 assists, the Braunschweig player is having a mixed season. The playmaker recently lost his place in the starting five with the Raptors. The Nets lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 95:118 late on Thursday (local time).
“I think we have a lot of talent in the team. I want to give everything every single day and win the games,” said the Braunschweiger, who was a little afraid of the traffic in New York, “a big city” in contrast to ” small town” in Lower Saxony near the Mittelland Canal.
Wagner brothers with strong performance
Meanwhile, basketball world champion Franz Wagner led his Orlando Magic to a commanding home win against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. In the 127:111 win against the team of French super talent Victor Wembanyama, the 22-year-old scored a strong 34 points, making him the best thrower on the floor. The Berlin native also put up seven points and seven assists.
His brother Moritz Wagner, who is four years older, also showed a strong performance coming from the Magic bench. In 16 minutes, the World Cup champion recorded eleven points, two rebounds and one assist. Thanks to the fourth win from the last five games, Orlando is seventh in the Eastern Conference and is still in the race for a direct playoff place.
Mixed performance from Kleber
Maximilian Kleber also celebrated success in the German duel with Isaiah Hartenstein. With the Dallas Mavericks, the 32-year-old defeated the New York Knicks 122:108. Kleber started as a center, but only contributed two points, four rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes of play. The most successful Mavs player was once again the Slovenian superstar Luka Dončić, who narrowly missed a triple-double (39 points, eight rebounds, eleven assists).
Hartenstein also started as a center, but had to leave the field in the second quarter due to pain in his left Achilles tendon. By then, the Knicks professional had once again put in a strong performance – with ten points, four rebounds and two assists in just under 15 minutes.
For New York, who had been in good form for weeks, it was the second defeat in the last three games. Dallas, on the other hand, won for the third time in a row and, as eighth in the table, is still within striking distance of the direct play-off places in the West.
