The Los Angeles Lakers have their answer: Move on from Dennis Schroder

At the time of writing, the Los Angeles Lakers are down three games to two against the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. While the Lakers are not technically out of it yet, the season is most likely over with Anthony Davis dealing with a groin injury.

The Lakers are not going to beat the Suns two games in a 100% version of Davis. Groins are tricky and the odds of Davis returning and playing up to his ceiling are slim to none.

While extremely frustrating, the team’s 30-point blowout loss in Game 5 helped show us a few things. We know this is a team without a true identity that does not know its rotation that was simply masked by having LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the same court.

That is what happens when you bring in several new players that don’t even get to play in a normal rotation with the stars both missing half a season or more.

The loss also gave the Los Angeles Lakers their answer for the upcoming offseason. When it comes to Dennis Schroder, the Lakers can simply close the checkbook and walk away. I held this stance when it was first reported that he rejected a four-year, $84 million deal. The sentiment is even stronger now.

Why the Los Angeles Lakers should move on from Dennis Schroder:

Dennis Schroder might be kicking himself as that $84 million offer is probably the best he is going to get and the Lakers should be relieved that he passed it up. While he has looked good at times and I was very excited for him before the year, he has made it abundantly clear that he is not worth that kind of money.

Schroder was downright terrible in Game 5. He was a complete no-show. He scored zero points, played passively and was not the second-best player that the Lakers needed him to be behind LeBron James. He was arguably the worst Laker that played on Tuesday and Jared Dudley got minutes!

This is more than just one game though. Schroder seems to have two modes: hero ball mode or unhelpful mode. Schroder is not really a big asset to the team unless he can play with a high usage rate and take control of the offense.

And as I have written a million times here on Lake Show Life, you probably are not looking at a good basketball team if Schroder has a usage rate at or above 30%. He is just not good enough to justify that kind of workload, but that is when he thrives.

He is like a much worse version of Russell Westbrook. While the skill sets are completely different, Westbrook, even at his best, is a very hard person to build a title-contending team around because of his playstyle. The same can be said about Schroder.

Will he have a big game here or there? Sure. But will he have many games like this in big moments? You bet. He has been so unimpressive this playoffs offensively and his defense has been far from knockout as well.

If his market has completely crashed and the Los Angeles Lakers can sign him for less than $10 million a year then I can deal with that. Anything more than that is an overpay, and yes, I know the team offered him $21 million per year. That was a mistake.

Let’s not forget that this is the same player that was traded from the Atlanta Hawks for Carmelo Anthony just so Atlanta could dump salary and buy out Carmelo. The Hawks literally traded him to free up money. What should that tell you?

When everything is right for the team Schroder will put up decent numbers to mask his problems. When things are not going right he is incapable of flipping the script and stepping up for the Lakers.

He is a streaky role player at best and the Los Angeles Lakers cannot fall into the trap of overpaying him. Let another team make that mistake.