The NBA trade deadline is not until Feb. 6, but we’ve already seen activity as teams look to bolster their postseason chances.

On Friday, the Indiana Pacers reached a deal to acquire center Thomas Bryant from the Miami Heat. And on Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets agreed to send guard Dennis Schroder to the Bay in a deal the Golden State Warriors hope can shore up their guard depth behind Stephen Curry. (Both deals cannot be finalized until Sunday.)

Which other players and picks will be on the move from now until the trade deadline? We’ll grade every side of the league’s major deals and break down their ramifications here, starting with the Warriors adding a point guard.

Warriors add help at guard, acquire Schroder from Nets

Golden State Warriors get:
G Dennis Schroder
Future second-round pick

Brooklyn Nets get:
G De’Anthony Melton
Three future second-round picks

Golden State Warriors grade: A-

For all the deserved credit to the Warriors’ depth, it has done more to give Steve Kerr options to put around Stephen Curry than to succeed without him. Golden State has been outscored by 1.9 points per 100 possessions with Curry on the bench, per NBA Advanced Stats, despite playing elite defense in those situations.

Without Curry, the Warriors simply can’t score. Their offensive rating when Curry rests ranks in the 4th percentile leaguewide, according to Cleaning the Glass, a big difference from last season when Golden State had future Hall of Famer Chris Paul as a backup. Last season, the Warriors scored at a league-average rate without Curry and outscored opponents with him on the bench.

After losing Paul, Golden State has used second-year guard Brandin Podziemski as a de facto backup point guard. Nearly 80% of Podziemski’s minutes have come at the position, per analysis of lineup data from NBA Advanced Stats, compared with just 14% when he was an All-Rookie First Team pick.

Podziemski’s sophomore slump can’t entirely be blamed on the role change. He is attempting relatively more pull-up 3s this season but was more accurate shooting them as a rookie (45.5%, compared with 36% on catch-and-shoot attempts). Podziemski hasn’t been able to make either type so far this season, shooting 26.5% on pull-ups and 23.5% on catch-and-shoot opportunities, worst among all players with at least 50 such attempts, according to Second Spectrum tracking on NBA Advanced Stats. Odds are, Podziemski would shoot better going forward either way.

Still, the Warriors are betting that adding Schroder also nets them an improved version of Podziemski with this trade, which replaces an empty roster spot — Melton is out for the season after surgery to repair an ACL sprain — with a veteran point guard off to a productive start.

Schroder, a full-time starter in Brooklyn for the first time since 2020-21, is averaging a career-high 6.6 assists and his most points (18.4) since finishing second in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2019-20. It’s unlikely Schroder will quite keep up that pace, even on a per-minute basis in a smaller role. He’s hitting 39% of his 3s thus far, a career high for the 34% shooter.

Much like Paul last season, Schroder might require Kerr to rethink his usual preference for off-ball movement. With the Nets, Schroder has averaged 53 ball screens per 100 possessions, according to Second Spectrum tracking — the league’s fifth-highest rate this season. Only Curry (32 per 100 possessions) is averaging more than 17 per 100 for Golden State. That was different last season, as Paul averaged 55 ball screens per 100 possessions when Curry was on the bench.

Kerr would be wise to pair Schroder as much as possible with second-year center Trayce Jackson-Davis, the Warriors’ best roll man, and can put plenty of shooting around them with guards Buddy Hield and Moses Moody. Non-shooters Kyle Anderson and Gary Payton II might be tougher fits in Golden State second units built around Schroder pick-and-rolls.

Having lost seven of nine games since a 12-3 start, the Warriors probably needed to upgrade to remain strong candidates for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Projections using ESPN’s Basketball Power Index put Golden State sixth in average wins in the Western Conference, just barely ahead of the LA Clippers.

Adding Schroder likely won’t put the Warriors back in the West’s top tier, as Golden State will surely remain in search of a second star to pair with Curry. The good news is upgrading now with Schroder won’t really affect that pursuit. The Warriors didn’t have to give up any first-round picks in this deal and have multiple expiring salaries to include.

Having triggered a hard cap at the lower luxury-tax apron, Golden State skillfully walked a financial tightrope with this deal. The Warriors added a little more than $200,000 in salary by swapping Melton for Schroder, leaving them a little more than $300,000 in wiggle room below the apron, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

Brooklyn Nets grade: B+

Having a deal of this magnitude completed Dec. 15, the first day players like Melton signed as free agents this offseason can be traded, is unusual. That date usually opens NBA “trade season” much more in theory than reality. However, a few factors might have encouraged Brooklyn to trade Schroder sooner rather than later.

First, there’s the matter of lottery positioning. The Nets came into this season with the NBA’s lowest over/under win total of 18.5 games at ESPN BET, having made a June trade to reacquire their 2025 first-round pick outright from the Houston Rockets with an eye toward a high selection.

As my stats-based preseason wins projections suggested, Brooklyn has been far more competitive than expected. At 10-15, the Nets are already more than halfway to their win total, and they’d be in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament if the season ended today. Dealing away veterans, starting with Schroder, should make it easier for Brooklyn to accumulate losses and end up in strong lottery position.

Beyond that, Schroder’s value is likely near its peak based on his play this season. Remember, the Nets acquired Schroder and Thaddeus Young at the 2024 trade deadline for Spencer Dinwiddie in a deal that did not include any draft picks. Netting a pair of second-round picks in return for Schroder is a great bit of business for Brooklyn.

I am curious how much interest there was in Schroder packages that would have required the Nets to take on salary beyond this season. (Melton, who signed a one-year contract with Golden State over the summer, will be an unrestricted free agent.) A Schroder reunion with the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, made sense but would likely have required Brooklyn to take back Gabe Vincent as matching salary. Vincent is under contract for $11.5 million in 2025-26.

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted in August, the Nets project to have a league-high $70 million in cap space next summer. That’s more than enough to sign a max player, though Brooklyn could accumulate enough room to sign multiple top free agents on a limited market by trading veterans who are under contract beyond this year. Alternatively, Brooklyn could use that flexibility to take back long-term salary from other teams to maximize pick value in future trades.