The NBA offseason isn’t ever a stranger to some ground-shaking news, and as the 2020-21 basketball season is around the corner with the trade season officially opening Monday, the defending champion Lakers were the first to cause shockwaves through the basketball universe.
The first action of their title defense? Oh, nothing but offering the charitable donation of shooting guard Danny Green and the 28th pick in this upcoming Wednesday’s draft to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year award finalist Dennis Schroeder. A deal between both factions will be finalized tomorrow, though it is good as done.
And the rich get even richer.
The Los Angeles Lakers are in advanced talks with Oklahoma City on a trade for guard Dennis Schroder, sources tell ESPN. Deal expected to include OKC acquiring LA’s pick at No. 28 in Wednesday’s draft. Deal can be completed at noon ET on Monday.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 15, 2020
As it pertains to the game, adding Schroder to an already championship-caliber rotation makes a lot of sense for a team desperately requiring bench scoring and versatile playmaking from an anemic guard spot. Conversely, this only implies that sixth man Rajon Rondo, who already signified his apprehensiveness to sign an extension with the champs, will be looking for his sixth team in his illustrious 14-year career.
It’s plausible Rob Pelinka had some sort of a backup plan in place if Rondo were to be gone, so them acquiring a secondary guard to run things after the first unit sits checks out. Schroder is, to put it succinctly, a significant upgrade over Danny Green. In 65 games this year with the Thunder, Schroder’s outrageous averages of 18.9 points, 4 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game got him into the conversation of the best sixth men in all of basketball and was announced as a finalist for the 6MOTY award, which was won by Clippers big man Montrezl Harrell.
Additionally, the upgrade from Green is most notable in his percentage averages from downtown. The German-born guard nearly shot 40 percent from three-land during the regular season and around 39.5 percent in the playoffs. L.A.’s interest in Schroder wasn’t new and hadn’t lingered even with their reported interest in wanting to sign Milwaukee’s Eric Bledsoe.
The soon-to-be-Laker will officially be an unrestricted free agent in 2021, and while it’s rather risky to trade for a guy who is in the last year of his contract, the Lakers are all in for their wide-open title window, which doesn’t look as if it’s going to be shut any time soon.
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