Offseason for The Association, but that doesn’t mean there’s no NBA news to keep up with. Summer means trades and deals for the teams and players of the NBA, and Shaq’s fav, the Lakers, are making in the news for the way one up-and-coming star has exited the west coast.
The story is about Dennis Schroder. At 27 years old, Schroder had some experience playing in his native Germany before coming to the states, he played for two years with the Oklahoma Thunder and then was traded to the Lakers.
Schroder played well with LA, averaging 15.4 points per game, 5.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds, all while shooting a nice 43.7 percent from the field. He seemed to fit well with superstars Lebron and Anthony Davis. After the season ended, the Lakers offers a juicy five-year contract valued at a reported $84 million dollars. By the way, that was guaranteed money… pretty sweet.
Seems that Schroder was thinking even bigger, however. Seems Schroder may have wanted even more, but it also seems the Lakers weren’t interested in offering any additional money.
As Schroder put off signing, the Lakers made some moves, including a big one: picking up Russel Westbrook from the Washington Wizards.
With the Lakers no longer interested, Schroder shopped his talents elsewhere, eventually landing a deal – a tiny deal – with the Boston Celtics. It’s a one-year contract worth about $5.9 million dollars. “I think he’s in a state of shock because of what he’s done,” a source told the Boston Herald newspaper about how Schroder feels months after his choice.
Equally shocked – in a very different way – former Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq posted a graphic of Schroder on Instagram depicting the point guard’s fall from financial grace, then added insult to injury with a stinging caption: “#whatthehellareyouthinking.”
Also piling on, former Lakers star Robert Horry, on his podcast: “You said, ‘Oh, I want to return to the Lakers.’ But you wanted to play games. Now you are the disaster of your own game plan. You don’t know what you’re going to do. You probably lost about $60 million because you didn’t sign with the Lakers.”
Tip ‘o the hat to our friends at www.ClutchPoints.com for the super-cool graphic. Thanks, guys!