5 reasons why the Los Angeles Lakers will repeat as NBA Champions
By Robert Marvi
3. The Lakers now have Dennis Schroder
In my humble opinion, Schroder is the team’s biggest and most important acquisition.
The team’s most pressing needs were another ball-handling guard, a legit third scoring option, better 3-point shooting, more speed, athleticism and youth and a way to reduce James’ workload without him having to sit out games for “load management.”
Trading Green for Schroder checks all those boxes.
The German native had a strong season for the Oklahoma City Thunder, averaging 18.9 points in 30.8 minutes per game for a team that won more than 60 percent of its games.
He played alongside Chris Paul this past season, and Russell Westbrook the season before that, so he knows how to produce while he’s off the ball.
He made 38.5 percent of his 3-balls in 2019-20 season, which will help a department in which L.A. was up and down all season.
Schroder is just 27 years of age, and he possesses great speed and quickness in the open court, which gives the Lakers another man who will run their fast break down the throats of every other team.
He’s even an underrated defender, so he can even replace at least some of the on-ball defense that the departed Avery Bradley gave them.
With Schroder on board, James won’t always have to be the guy who pushes the ball downcourt and sets up the offense whenever the lakers don’t have anything. The Lakers can also be a little less dependant on James to create offense for himself whenever the shot clock is under 10 seconds.
All that should result in a healthy and fresh James for the playoffs, and maybe even an additional elite or near-elite season for him when it’s all said and done.