The Los Angeles Lakers signed Dennis Schroder to a one-year contract on Friday in a move that was surprising to just about everyone. While Schroder was one of the best free agents on the market, the Lakers roster is already stacked with guards and this only added to that surplus.
It made a ton of sense if the Lakers were going to turn around and trade Russell Westbrook but based on how Darvin Ham plans to use the guards, it does not appear that the team will do that before the season starts.
Based on everything that has happened since free agency started in July, it is fair to question the decisions that were made by the team. Most notably, why the Lakers used their MLE on Lonnie Walker IV only to bury him down the rotation.
Los Angeles gets some benefit of the doubt, though, as they could not have predicted that they would bring in all these guards after Walker, right? Well, perhaps not.
Dennis Schroder reveals that he has been in talks with the Lakers for three months now.
Schroder, who piloted Germany to a bronze medal in EuroBasket, revealed that he has been in talks with the Lakers for three months now and that it was never a doubt that he would don the purple and gold again (h/t Donatas Urbonas).
"“I’ve been talking to the Lakers for the last three months. I knew I was going back, but I wanted to take my time”"
So this means that Schroder has been in talks with the Los Angeles Lakers since the start of free agency, which leaves us with plenty of questions. Why did the team make it such an emphasis to bring in guards this offseason if they knew that Schroder was potentially coming to town?
Most notably, it just makes the Walker signing look even worse. The Beverley trade still makes sense as Talen Horton-Tucker was a sunk cost but LA already knew what it was potentially getting with Schroder. Why continue to double and triple down?
Again, this would all make perfect sense if the Lakers were going to commit to either trading Westbrook or telling him to go home and not play. Who knows, maybe that will happen after 10 games.
3 wing free agents the Lakers should sign after adding Dennis Schroder
The Los Angeles Lakers need to improve their wing depth before the 2022-23 season begins and can still do so with one of these three free agents.
But as it stands right now, the team has somehow made the Westbrook fit even worse for the 2022-23 season, which seemed impossible six months ago.