Dennis Schroder is an unrestricted free agent this offseason after the point guard reportedly declined a four-year, $84 million extension from the Los Angeles Lakers during the season. The Lakers should feel lucky that Schroder said no, as that contract would have felt like an overpay after what transpired thereafter.
It became clear that while Schroder could put up good box score numbers when his usage rate was high, he was not a great fit alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He is a ball-stopper in the worst kind of way as a point guard and is not someone who is going to succeed next to LeBron James.
Out of all the possible scenarios for Dennis Schroder this offseason, there is one that makes the most sense from a likelihood standpoint.
The Los Angeles Lakers agreeing to a sign-and-trade with Dennis Schroder makes the most sense.
While anything can happen in the NBA, a Dennis Schroder sign-and-trade is something with serious legs that should be monitored. These kinds of deals are not super rare but it is the rare situation where it could benefit both the player and the team involved.
And yes, this means that it is most likely that Schroder will play on another team next season, as it should be. He simply is not a great fit for this team.
Let’s break down the reasons why a sign-and-trade is the most likely path in Schroder’s near future.
1. Dennis Schroder is not going to get paid much in free agency
Dennis Schroder rejecting the four-year, $84 million offer tells us one thing and one thing only: he values himself higher than $21 million per season and is looking for more money in free agency. It is not like the relationship with the Lakers was terrible at the time, he wants a bigger payday.
Based on the Lakers’ offer of $21 million, I would bet that Schroder is aiming for $25 million a season, or $100 million. That is a round number for Schroder to strive towards, but this is just speculation.
Regardless of his asking price, we know it is larger than $21 million and he simply is not going to get that kind of money in free agency. There are not very many teams that have much cap space this offseason and it would be shocking to see a team spend that much on an unrestricted free agent.
However, that price becomes easier to swallow when trading away a player that makes similar money as Schroder. This also opens the door for more teams to go after Schroder as a team could agree to a contract with a player using Bird Rights then flip that player for Schroder.
This is why a Kemba Walker trade makes sense. The Boston Celtics need to get Walker’s contract off the books and the Lakers could capitalize by trading Schroder in a sign-and-trade.
But why not just re-sign Dennis Schroder if the Lakers are going to take on $20 million+ when signing and trading him?
2. The Los Angeles Lakers are hard-pressed to improve and don’t want to lose that extra cap space
The Los Angeles Lakers are in a situation where they can pay money to sign Dennis Schroder but will not be able to simply spend that same money on someone else. The option for the Lakers is to pretty much spend it on Schroder or don’t spend it at all. We see this all the time in the NBA with how the salary cap works.
The Lakers acquired the Bird Rights to Schroder via trade and can go over the salary cap to re-sign him so long that they do not go over the hard cap. This essentially gives the team around $20-25 million to spend on Schroder that they cannot spend elsewhere.
That is the point of the sign-and-trade. The Lakers can spend that money on Schroder and then flip that asset for another asset, essentially signing another player with the money that they have to pay Schroder.
This is the perfect case of a team not wanting to outright lose the asset while also improving upon the asset. If there is no team biting on a sign-and-trade then the Lakers should probably just outright sign Schroder anyway with the plans of eventually upgrading, but getting that upgrade now is huge.
The Lakers are in championship mode and while they might not get a massive talent upgrade, the team could still upgrade by getting a much better fit than Schroder.