With this year’s free agent class being weaker than usual in terms of big name talents potentially being on the move, Dennis Schroder currently finds himself as one of the bigger names available this year. The 27-year-old point guard is an unrestricted free agent this year and it’s been noted in various rumors that he wants to be paid like one of the top NBA free agents this offseason.
Schroder is coming off of a four-year, $70M contract in which he was on the Hawks, Thunder and previously the Lakers, but now, he is seeking upwards of $100M-$120M on his new contract according to Armin Andres, VP of the German Basketball Federation. Back in June, Andres was on the Abteilung Basketball podcast and stated, “Dennis Schroeder has communicated this clearly: he wants 100, 120 million – which he will probably also get – and this sum insured cannot be insured on the normal market at the moment,” according to Manuel Baraniak who initially reported this.
While there is interest from Schroder’s camp to return to Los Angeles and there is some interest from the Lakers to bring him back, it seems highly unlikely that he will get this large of a deal from the Lakers. In his only season with the team, Schroder averaged 15.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and shot 43.7% from the floor, but in the postseason, Dennis Schroder struggled shooting just 40% from the floor and 30.8% from three-point range.
Inking a long-term deal in Los Angeles could be tricky, especially given their cap situation right now. The Lakers with just 7 players under contract for next season, including the likes of Montrezl Harrell who has yet to decide on his player option for the 2021-22 season, are already $9.9M over the project salary cap and do not have much space to go after other high-level talents, especially if they re-sign Schroder to a big deal.
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With LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Los Angeles Lakers will once again be hunting championships, which is why they could potentially look to leverage Dennis Schroder as a potential sign-and-trade candidate. In doing so, the Lakers could potentially pull off a multi-team deal in order to land one of their primary targets this offseason.
Finding another All-Star-caliber player seems to be what the Lakers have in mind, which is why using Schroder in a sign-and-trade seems somewhat likely to happen. Now, let’s take a look at three possible sign-and-trade destinations for Dennis Schroder this offseason.
