2. Did we get a little bit too excited about Dennis Schroder?
No matter what happens, the Dennis Schroder trade will be a win in my book. The Lakers swapped Danny Green and a draft pick that they did not need for Schroder and then signed someone who, at the very worst, is going to be 90% of what Green was last season in Wesley Matthews.
When you think of it in that context, the Lakers essentially got Dennis Schroder for the 28th overall pick. That is quite the come up, if you ask me.
However, I do think that we might have been getting ahead of ourselves (at least, I might have been) because the trade was so favorable for the Lakers. Schroder is absolutely an improvement from Rajon Rondo, but there have been some worrisome signs in the preseason games.
Again, they are just preseason games, but getting the first taste of Schroder in the purple and gold did bring the expectations back down to earth a bit. Schroder was not really acting as an initiator when he was on the court and instead was attempting, and not being very efficient, at creating his own shot.
That is fine from a bench scoring standpoint but the Lakers need someone to operate the offense when LeBron is off the court. This is especially important in this season with the shortest offseason in league history in which LeBron will likely be cautiously limited.
I expect him to initiate more once the games really matter and the Lakers are actually running sets and it is not just a glorified pick-up game.