Los Angeles Lakers: Dennis Schroder shows fatal flaw in loss to Mavericks

Anthony Davis returned to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night against the Dallas Mavericks and looked like someone who had not played an NBA game for over two months. Davis only played the first half, as was planned, and scored four points on 2-10 shooting.

Davis tried to get himself going early on with several shot attempts but just could not get into a rhythm. This should have been expected, though, and the output will progressively ramp up as time goes on.

The other story of the game was the fantastic play from Dennis Schroder and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Lakers’ starting backcourt looked fantastic in the game. KCP was hitting his shots and Schroder was operating the offense like a true point guard.

KCP finished with 29 points on 9/17 shooting, making 6/12 from deep. Schroder finished with 25 points and 13 assists. These two are the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers were in the game down the stretch.

But that is when Dennis Schroder showcased his fatal flaw for the Los Angeles Lakers.

It is really easy to look at 90% of the game as well as the box score and conclude that Schroder had a great game. And that is true… for 90% of the game. His mistakes in the final minutes of the game potentially cost the Los Angeles Lakers the victory.

And it was really only one mistake but it highlighted something that is an interesting talking point about Schroder. Something that is part of the conversation when we discuss whether or not the team should offer him more than the four-year, $84 million contract that he rejected.

Personally, I do not think they should, but that is beside the point.

With two and a half minutes left in the game, the Lakers got the ball following a Tim Hardaway Jr. miss. The Lakers were only down four and had the momentum to potentially seize the game. They needed a smart possession and these are the areas where it really hurts to not have LeBron James operating the offense.

The possession was not smart, effective, and essentially led to the Lakers losing the game. Schroder hit a quick crossover on the perimeter, drove to the basket on the right and attempted a running pull-up from about 12 feet. The shot was blocked.

Dallas went down on the other end, LA doubled Luka Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith was able to hit the wide-open three. Lakers down seven with two minutes left. Ball game.

Dallas played really poorly down the stretch to allow the Lakers to stay in the game, which is even more frustrating. If the Lakers score a basket there they would not just cut the deficit to one possession but would keep Dallas from being able to hit the easy three in transition.

And this is the fatal flaw with Dennis Schroder. As great as he was in this game, he is someone who has to have a high usage rate and be the star of the show in order to be successful. That is why his numbers and efficiency are far better with LeBron James out than it was when LeBron was healthy.

Schroder just is not someone who is going to get a 25-30% usage rate on the Los Angeles Lakers. He is right now, but at full strength, that is less than ideal.

And we saw that come to the surface a bit at the end of the game. With no superstars in the game, Schroder played hero ball with a poor possession and a poor shot attempt. It would be one thing if he was open and missed or Dallas made a great play. He wasn’t. If this was NBA 2K21, the feedback would have said smothered. 

This fatal flaw is something the Los Angeles Lakers must consider in contract talks and it could keep the team from bringing him back long-term.