Los Angeles Lakers: 3 teams to call for a Dennis Schroder sign-and-trade

3. New Orleans Pelicans

Player to sign-and-trade for: Steven Adams

It became quite clear throughout the season that Steven Adams was not a great fit for the New Orleans Pelicans. While still a solid player, the Pelicans are not built for a traditional center, at least as long as Zion Williamson is on the team.

The Pelicans are at their best when Zion can essentially run point center. His size does not even matter for the center position as Zion has unmatched athleticism and has more than proven that he can bang down low in the NBA.

The Pelicans also have a restricted free agent in Lonzo Ball. You could make the case for a point guard swap, which I certainly would be okay with, but it might make more sense for the Pelicans to use this chance to pivot off of Adams’ contract when he is not a great fit.

The team can still bring back Lonzo Ball and run a three-guard rotation of Ball, Schroder and Eric Bledsoe with Schroder off the bench. Or, they could flip Ball’s restricted free agency into more assets in a different sign and trade.

Jaxson Hayes is more than capable of taking an uptick in minutes and the Pelicans could even use a late pick on another big man just for depth. At the end of the day, they can afford to move on from Adams and they should.

As for the Lakers, Adams would provide a rim-protecting presence that would not clog the lane as much as Andre Drummond and could play great off of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Is he a bit overpaid? Yes, but this is still an asset for an asset which is the entire goal of the sign-and-trade.