The Brooklyn Nets gave the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers a real run for their money on Saturday night, and if it weren’t for a dud of a fourth quarter, perhaps Brooklyn would have handed Cleveland its first loss of the campaign.
The play of Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith helped the Nets nearly come away with a victory over the mighty Cavaliers. The former finished with 22 points and five assists, while the latter contributed 10 points and four rebounds.
According to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein, Schroder, Finney-Smith and Bojan Bogdanovic — who has yet to make his season debut with the Nets — are all expected to be dealt before the NBA trade deadline, which will be on Feb. 6.
“Dennis Schroder, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic are all quality vets possessing sub-$20 million salaries and frequently mentioned by rival teams as players they expect to be moved between now and the Feb. 6 trade deadline,” Stein wrote. “With first-year coach Jordi Fernandez clearly trying to win games, Brooklyn might have to ponder stripping down even earlier than it imagined.”
Schroder is playing some of the best basketball of his NBA career so far in his second season with the Nets, and contenders in need of scoring and playmaking firepower would be wise to pursue a trade for him. Across 10 games played in the 2024-25 regular season (all starts), Schroder is averaging a career-high 20.1 points per game on 48.6 percent shooting from the field and 46.3 percent from 3-point range.
He’s also averaging a career-high in assists per game (6.6) as Brooklyn’s starting floor general.
As for Finney-Smith, while he’s not the offensive player that Schroder is, he’s still a solid 3-point shooter and versatile defender. He’s a career 35.5 percent 3-point shooter, and he nearly converted 40 percent of his looks from deep back when he was with the Dallas Mavericks in the 2021-22 campaign.
Additionally, he can competently guard both forward positions, as he’s spent time playing at the small forward and power forward spots throughout his pro career.
Last but not least, it’s unclear when exactly Bogdanovic will be healthy enough to play again, considering he’s recuperating from surgery on his left foot. But when at full strength, he’s a gifted scorer who can cause a lot of problems for opposing defenses.
He averaged 15.2 points per game while shooting 39.8 percent from deep across 57 games played with the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks a season ago. Plus, he’s averaged 20-plus points in a single season twice in the NBA.
