Nets scrambling to process what comes next after Dennis Schroder trade

The Nets’ decision to trend toward what they were expected to be — the worst team in the league — and to put more focus on their long-term rebuild by trading away their star point guard Dennis Schroder on Sunday has left the team floundering. It showed on the court on Monday in a brutal 130-101 gut-punch loss to the Cavaliers and former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. “I definitely still have to do more there.It’s definitely by committee.

Dennis got to have the ball a lot of the game,” Cam Johnson said Monday of how to make up for the loss of Schroder.“The ball, when it’s in [Ben Simmons’] hands a lot, figuring out how to cut and move and find open windows and create space on the floor is going to be really important for us. “That’s the name of the game now.

We have who we have, and I respect our group, and I know that we’ll take this one personally.” Instead of their identity as being a surprising rebuilding team, the Nets have been given a new identity as a tanking misfit group with no intentional direction other than down until the 2025-26 season. “I trust them.I trust the team.

I trust the coaches,” Nic Claxton said of whether the Nets can right the ship following the Schroder trade.“It was just a weird vibe.

Like in practice it was weird, I’m just being honest.So we all got to regroup and come together and we got to control what we can control.” “Just when you lose a player like that, it’s tough,” Claxton added.

“He was like, he did a lot for us.Like, he brought a lot on and off the court.

He brought energy, toughness.He brought a lot for us.

Like you got to really give him a lot of credit.So now everybody else has to fill in for the areas that he really was helping us.” Schroder was sent to the Warriors along with a second-round draft pick in exchange for seven-year veteran guard De’Anthony Melton, rookie Reece Beekman, and three second-round picks (Atlanta’s in 2026 and 2028, and the Warriors’ in 2...