NBA free agency officially began on Friday and the Los Angeles Lakers wasted no time making moves. Los Angeles signed Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish and re-signed restricted free agent Rui Hachimura to a three-year deal.
With the additions and re-signed players also came players who left the team. Troy Brown Jr. signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves but he was not much of an impact player anyway. More impactfully, Dennis Schroder signed with the Toronto Raptors.
Schroder made some fans during his time in Los Angeles and those fans are likely sad to see him go for a second time. Making his departure sting a bit less is just how much the Raptors are paying him, as Schroder is getting a pretty penny for going up north.
Free agent G Dennis Schroder has agreed to a two-year, $26M deal with the Toronto Raptors, agent Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2023
Raptors steal Dennis Schroder from Lakers via massive overpay
Schroder had his moments last season for the purple and gold, sure, but nobody ever thought he was a $13 million player, right? In the grand scheme of things with an inflated free-agent market, a two-year deal worth $13 million might not be that bad. But the Raptors could have got similar guards to do as much or more than Schroder for cheaper.
Let’s not forget that it looked like Schroder was potentially out of the league last offseason. He went unsigned for most of the summer after a lackluster season and it wasn’t until he shined in EuroBasket 2022 that the Lakers felt compelled to sign him.
And even then, Los Angeles only signed him to a one-year veteran minimum. That is where his value was less than 12 months ago and now he is making six times that.
It isn’t like Schroder had a season that was that much better than his previous seasons. The veteran point guard averaged 12.6 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game on .415/.329/.857 shooting splits. The year prior, he averaged 13.5 points, 4.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game on .431/.344/.853 shooting splits. He had a worse season statistically and shot his value up exponentially.
The Lakers didn’t need to get in a bidding war over someone who averaged 7.3 points per game and shot under 40% from the field in the playoffs. Schroder is a very replaceable asset that is getting paid much more than that in 2023-24.