Dennis Schroder Is Looking For A Way Back Onto The Lakers By Blowing Up LeBron's IG Comments

Harry How. Getty Images.

It wasn't long ago that Dennis Schroder was the starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers where he averaged 15.4/3.5/5.8 on 43/35% splits. That was in 2020-21, and as we know, the Lakers offered an $80M extension to which Dennis said thank you but no thank you. He was betting on himself that he could get a better deal on the open market. Fast forward to last July and there was no better deal on the market. In fact, Schroder had to settle for the $5.9 MLE from the Celtics. That pairing lasted 49 games before he was traded to the Rockets for Daniel Theis, and as you can expect from a rebuilding team, they did not decide to keep Schroder and he is currently an unrestricted free agent.

At this point of the offseason, most teams have spent all their money. Maybe there are some low money TPEs still out there, but almost everyone has used either their cap space or exceptions. Once you get to this part of the market, you're looking at veteran minimum deals, or some of the smaller exceptions if they still exist like the bi-annual exception which is available for teams that are over the cap but under the tax apron. Confused yet? The point is, there aren't a lot of teams that even are in need of a point guard right now, and if they are, they probably don't have a ton of money to spend. That means a player like Schroder has to be creative when it comes to finding his next home. 

So what does he do? He goes back to the well and stalks the shit out of LeBron on Instagram

Listen, you have to do whatever it takes if you want to stick around in the league, I get it. If that means begging on IG for LeBron to tell Rob Pelinka to give you the vet minimum, so be it. I don't really see how that fits as long as Westbrook is still on the roster and if you believe the latest from Chris Haynes, that's how it's going to be for a while

(aka, nobody wanted our picks as a way to unload Westbrook's deal so now we have to keep you)

The thing with Schroder is even with his faults, at such a low salary number there is real value there. It's not like he can't play

and while his style isn't for every system, you could make the case that the Lakers are in no position so thumb their nose up at any type of talent that could actually want to go there. Who are the Lakers? Last time I checked they missed the playoffs and their starting point guard kind of stinks now. A quick look at their roster

tells you that guard depth really isn't a strong suit right now (I think Bradley/Augustin/Ellington are also a UFAs). Maybe Schroder knows this and that's why he's spamming Lebron on IG. I think it's much more likely we see a reunion there than it is Russ is traded for someone or Kyrie ends up in LA this year. Dennis is still someone that can go out and get you 20+ on any given night, he's just frustrating to watch at times is all. You can certainly do worse from a talent perspective, and he's young enough where there should be plenty of basketball left in the tank.

At this point I'm not really sure the Lakers can say no. You're really going to enter the loaded Western Conference with only Austin Reaves as your reserve guard? That can't be the plan. While part of me hopes it is because that has disaster written all over it, I think ultimately this ends with Schroder's IG stalking resulting in a minimum deal. Crazy he still hasn't rebuilt his market after a 2022 season that was somewhat decent, but that's why you probably should never turn down $80M+ guaranteed dollars. Next thing you know you're begging on IG for your old job back. That's rough.