Dennis Schroder had an unceremonious exit from the Los Angeles Lakers over the offseason. The Lakers made a decision to run it back from last year’s team as much as possible, but made one major switch. Schroder walked to the Toronto Raptors on a deal worth $25.4 million over two years, and the Lakers in-turn signed Gabe Vincent to a three-year, $33 million deal.
At the time of the signing, the Lakers felt that Vincent would be a better fit thanks to his shooting ability. His streaky shooting got hot during the 2023 postseason run to the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat, and it separated him from Schroder, as the two are otherwise relatively similar player profiles.
But with a knee injury limiting Vincent to only five games so far this season, and Schroder fitting in wonderfully with the Raptors, L.A. may be reassessing the move from the offseason. And some reported revisionist history is now coming into play about the real reason the Lakers opted for Vincent over Schroder, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
The most significant personnel change from last year’s group was swapping Dennis Schroder for Vincent at point guard — a move that, according to sources, was as much about Schroder looking for a larger role as it was the Lakers’ preference for Vincent’s shooting and space-creating ability.
The Lakers, of course, were going to show outward excitement about the switch from Schroder to Vincent, because anything else would look bad on the organization. But now that the season has gone the way it has gone, rumors are going to start to leak on what actually happened in the offseason.
And if the true story is that Schroder simply wanted to leave L.A. in favor of a larger role and the Lakers used Vincent as a backup plan, it would also not be a good look for L.A. Not only because Vincent has played five games this year while Schroder has succeeded in Toronto, but also because the Lakers have been in desperate need of a secondary ball-handler and Schroder had been playing that role well with the Lakers.
Additionally, the Lakers gave a three-year contract to a reported backup plan, if these rumors are at all true. Perhaps these rumors are going to be addressed with the team’s trade deadline moves. But if not, Vincent just needs to return to the lineup healthy as quickly as possible.
Darvin Ham: Lakers need to decide what team they’re going to be
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham was honest and critical in his assessment of the team after a frustrating loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and he delivered a call to action for L.A.
“We saw the same people that put together that first half, same ones that allowed that second half and just have to decide which team we’re going to be. We see how dominant we can be when we’ve done it right. And we’re healthy. And we’ve seen when we haven’t done it so right. And when you’re dealing with different body issues, health issues, but at the end of the day, you suit up, you got to come out there and compete and compete as a unit.”
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