1. The Los Angeles Lakers have money they can’t spend elsewhere
The Los Angeles Lakers can sign Dennis Schroder to an extension either this season or in the offseason, utilizing his Bird Rights to go over the salary cap. This allows them more financial flexibility that they will not be able to utilize elsewhere.
The Lakers can extend Schroder as long as they do not go over the hard cap, which they shouldn’t. However, they would not be able to use that same money on another player, making it a no-brainer in the financial sense.
We saw this recently with the Los Angeles Clippers extended Marcus Morris to a four-year, $64 million deal. That is a significant overpay in terms of market value, but they could not spend the money elsewhere and instead used in on Morris.
Wojnarowski outlines what the Lakers could do if Schroder does indeed walk in his initial report. The only thing the Lakers would be able to utilize to replace Schroder is the mid-level exception, which is worth $9.5 million.
The Lakers are not going to get someone to replace Schroder with only $9.5 million because of what Schroder brings to the table. About that…