Lakers: 5 Lessons learned from the Dennis Schroder-Danny Green trade

Many will look at the Schroder deal based on his last year at OKC. People forget how he got there!

This is in no way shortchanging what Dennis Schroder did in OKC last year. The issue that will be laid out on this page is how he got to OKC in the first place.

Sometimes hidden messages can be found in the ahem “Most interesting” places. Like here with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless (Stop rolling your eyes and listen!).

Let’s pay attention to some bullet points here.

• Dennis Schroder is Reggie Jackson the second.
• He does not have the inability to run the Lakers offense.
• He can score in ways the Rajon Rondo cannot.

Let’s ignore the rest, the Lakers would have won without Rondo. Did Rajon play great? Sure, but Skip Bayless is so desperate to get LeBron’s attention it’s laughable at this point.

However, let’s look deeper.

Oklahoma City acquired Schroder in 2018 from the Hawks in exchange for Carmelo Anthony and a lottery-protected 2022 first-round pick. At the time, the Hawks had their hands on a brand new player called Trae Young. They must have seen a conflict coming to take Melo’s contract (he was bought out immediately at near $25 million!) to ship him out and then do a separate trade for Jeremy Lin?

Anyone want to know how it is playing in a Schroder run offense? Ask Dwight Howard.

The Lakers run an offensive system centered around the post-ups through Anthony Davis and LeBron James. The Lakers were second in the league in post-up possessions last season, averaging 14.3 per game.

The team gave 88.8 percent of their post-up possessions to Anthony Davis and LeBron James as they averaged 12.7 per game. The Thunder ran a faster-paced perimeter offense with limited touches to center Steven Adams.

The Lakers offensive system mandate perimeter players to be floor spacers to open up lanes for the two superstars. For example, Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Rajon Rondo took more than 38 percent of their shots from behind the arc this past regular season. Schroder will be counted on to be a spot-up 3 point shooter.

Can Schroder score in the NBA? Sure. But he has never played in a system that the Lakers play with two bonafide superstars that command the ball the majority of the time in the offense. To take things further, he hasn’t played on a team with championship pressure.

But is this a great deal for the Lakers according to Lake Show Life? Read on to find out!