Day: December 16, 2024

The Golden State Warriors made the first major trade of the 24-25 season by acquiring Dennis Schroder and plan to continue to be aggressive leading to the trade deadline. Over the past year, the Warriors have pursued trades for LeBron James, Lauri Markkanen, Paul George and Jimmy Butler.

“We’re always aggressive,” Mike Dunleavy said on a conference call to discuss the Schroder addition. “You got to be mindful of what you’re giving up, what you’re getting back, all those things. But anything to do to make the team better, we’re going to do.

“We’re in a time zone here of maximizing our window with Steph, Draymond and Steve [Kerr] as our coach. So as proven here on the first day we could basically make trades with certain players, we did that… For the most part I feel good about this team, particularly on the defensive end and now we have a player that we think could create and generate more offense for us. I want to evaluate and see, but we’ll always be looking at stuff.”

The Warriors had a need in the backcourt following the season-ending injury to De’Anthony Melton.

Joel Embiid will be reevaluated in one week with his right sinus fracture. Embiid suffered the injury in the Philadelphia 76ers’ loss last Friday to the Indiana Pacers.

Embiid has played in just six games this season, averaging 20.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 29.3 minutes.

LeBron James looked refreshed in his return to the Los Angeles Lakers lineup on Sunday. James said he would have liked to have played, but said the team did the right thing by having him take some time off.

“If it was up to just me, I probably would’ve played,” James said. “It would’ve been hard to keep me away from it. I have a team and I got to listen to them as well. They look out for my best interest.”

James who had a stated goal of playing in all 82 games this season, also said the soreness in his left foot hasn’t gone away.

“It’s not behind me,” James said of his foot issue. “It’s an everyday thing.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick said he’ll be focused on trying to find ways to keep James rested and healthy, but without forcing the veteran superstar to take games off.

“Not necessarily less minutes, but shorter runs so that he’s not getting gassed and then quicker segments on the bench and then he’s back in,” Redick said.