1. Dennis Schroder: C
Dennis Schroder turned down a four-year, $84 million contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers during the season and the Lakers are lucky. They now know Schroder’s asking price and after seeing him play in the playoffs, it is clear that it is not worth it.
Just because the Lakers should not bring him back does not mean that this move was an outright failure for the team. Sure, he does not fit the Lakers very well and Rajon Rondo fit much better because of his playmaking, but there was nothing the team really could have done.
Rondo was overpaid by the Atlanta Hawks and the Lakers were right not to offer that. Schroder is the more talented player at this stage in his career, he just did not have the playoff experience to make a difference and style-wise is not what you want out of the point guard position.
He had his moments during the regular season, though. He was big in stepping up while LeBron James and Anthony Davis were hurt and he proved that as a guy with a high usage rate he can put up numbers.
He just was not good enough to be the team’s number three, especially when he needs the usage of a top-two player to be successful. And when he was a top-two player with AD hurt he played poorly.
It gets a passing grade and just barely as there were not many other directions for the Los Angeles Lakers to go, but it is safe to safe that it was still a disappointment nonetheless.