Thunder Trade: Reviewing Dennis Schroder's Move to Lakers

Now that a full season has passed since the Thunder traded away Dennis Schroder, it's interesting to see how that deal looks now.

Dennis Schroder was acquired by the Oklahoma City Thunder via trade for Carmelo Anthony after the 2017-18 season. After starting his career with the Atlanta Hawks, Schroder spent two full seasons with OKC, improving his reputation around the league both on and off the court. 

Schroder had a great first season with the Thunder, but notched a career-best type year during the 2019-20 season. He averaged 18.9 points and 4.0 assists per game while shooting a career-best 38.5 percent from deep. During his final season in Oklahoma City, Schroder was runner-up for NBA Sixth Man of the Year and made a name for being an absolutely lethal scorer.

After that season, the Thunder officially decided to hit the reset button and re-tool around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As they entered a phase of asset accumulation, they decided to trade Schroder to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

This was also a preventative move, as Schroder was set to enter the final season of his contract and OKC needed to extract value before he hit free agency after the 2020-21 seaosn. With that in mind, Thunder GM Sam Presti got good value for him being a potential rental for the Lakers. 

Regardless, Los Angeles was willing to pay up for Schroder, who would immediately become their third-best player and starting point guard. In return for him, they sent OKC Danny Green and the No. 28 overall pick in 2020 NBA Draft.

From there, the Thunder would package Green on draft night with Terrance Ferguson and Vincent Poirier in exchange for Al Horford, the No. 34 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft (which became Theo Maledon), the rights to International prospect Vasilije Micic and a 2025 first-round pick from the Sixers.

Looking back, the Thunder were able to turn Dennis Schroder and two players who weren't part of their future plans into Al Horford, Theo Maledon and a future first-round pick. From here, it will be interesting to see what Presti gets in a trade for Horford this offseason as he continues to derive value from the original Schroder deal.