Dennis Schroder has finally agreed to a contract.
It’s not anywhere near the contract he envisioned — in either money or years — but he was out of options. Schroder has agreed to a deal with the Boston Celtics. Schroder himself confirmed it on his Instagram story.
Dennis Schroder on IG: pic.twitter.com/wm1SoBBiAS
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 10, 2021
This is a one-year contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The Celtics had offered their tax-payer mid-level exception at $5.9 million, and Schroder wasn’t going to do any better than that, so he took it.
Schroder averaged 15.4 points and 5.8 assists a game last season for the Lakers, the season before that in Atlanta he was second in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
This is not how Schroder envisioned his offseason going when he rejected a four-year, $84 million extension offer from the Lakers. Schroder wanted more money than that — he was asking for a four-year contract north of $100 million — and wanted a larger role than the Lakers gave him (LeBron James is their primary playmaker, for obvious reasons). Other teams didn’t value Schroder the same way, and his playoff struggles — 40% shooting overall, 30.8% from three, not filling the role as a secondary playmaker that Rajon Rondo had in the bubble — only decreased his value.
Teams that needed a point guard looked elsewhere: The Bulls landed Lonzo Ball, the Knicks got a steal in Kemba Walker, and the Heat got their top target in Kyle Lowry. Then Spencer Dinwiddie got his deal with the Wizards. The Lakers were not bringing Schroder back after trading for Russell Westbrook. The music stopped, and Schroder didn’t have a chair.
Schroder isn’t a perfect fit in Boston, but he’s a quality point guard that the Celtics got at a very good price — and Schroder will be motivated this season, looking for a bigger deal next summer. Schroder will split time at the point with Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard, and Boston could even go with a Smart/Schroder/Jaylen Brown lineup for a stretch. At his price, teams will likely call at the deadline looking for Schroder if Boston wants to move on.
