To start this flurry of moves across the NBA this week, the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are set to complete a trade landing Dennis Schroder from the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is definitely an unexpected way to start off the free agency/trade period, but the NBA world is ready come noon this Monday.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, in exchange for Schroder the Lakers are expected to send their 28th overall pick in this Wednesday’s NBA draft, as well as veteran 3x champion shooting guard Danny Green.
Green signed a two-year contract with the Lakers last summer worth $30 million. In his first season in LA he averaged 8.0 PPG, 41.6% FG and 36.7% 3FG (his 3rd lowest in his 11-year career). He was streaky this year as a shooter, and was heavily criticized on social media as a result of that. Unfortunately, he and even his wife received death threats when the inconsistencies continued in the playoffs.
Fortunately for LA though, this is a pretty good risk to take in terms of production. What is Green known for? His three-point shooting and defensive prowess, right? Well Schroder has been progressively becoming a better deep shooter and defender. Whenever he was on the floor, he often took on James Harden and/or Russell Westbrook on defense against the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs this year.
An added bonus to this even skillset swap is ball handling. Green hasn’t been known as much of a ball handler throughout his career, and instead of is known as a spot up shooter. Schroder can not only bring the ball up, but also create his own shot. This will likely help the champs who try to take some of this load off of LeBron. Especially since the Lakers have yet to come to terms on a new contract for Rajon Rondo or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, two guards who were a big part of winning this year’s championship.
So, this will be a solid trade for the Lakers, but it’s unlikely that they’ll stop here. It’s been rumored that they are going after Wesley Matthews (who just declined his player option with the Milwaukee Bucks) and DeMar DeRozan, who’s going into the last year of his contract with the San Antonio Spurs.
