Dennis Schröder Will Replace Fred VanVleet In Toronto On A Two-Year, $26 Million Deal

All things considered, Dennis Schröder’s return to the Los Angeles Lakers went pretty well. After famously failing to agree to a lucrative extension with the team during his last stint with the team and spending the 2021-22 season with the Boston Celtics and the Houston Rockets, Schröder put pen to paper on a 1-year deal to head back to L.A.

One year later and Schröder finds himself in a similar spot, as he is on the unrestricted free agent market and has the ability to sign with any team he wants, with the major difference being his stock is a bit higher than it was at this point last offseason. After seeing a number of big names sign early on Friday evening, Schröder waited out the point guard market and cashed in big time when Fred VanVleet spurned the Raptors to take a three-year max in Houston. With Toronto rather desperate for a new starting point guard in their quest to stay competitive, having already re-signed Jakob Poeltl, Schröder was able to get a 2-year, $26 million deal from the Raptors.

Schröder started in the backcourt for the Lakers during most of last season, although he lost the starting nod towards the end of the regular season and for much of the postseason as Darvin Ham preferred to start the duo of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves in the backcourt. On the year, Schröder appeared in 66 games with 50 starts, and averaged 12.6 points and 4.5 assists in 30.1 minutes per game. Getting the full mid-level from the Raptors is a significant win for Schröder, who has seen taking his time to get a deal backfire in the past but this time got rewarded with more money than I think most expected him to get.

Toronto gets a veteran replacement they desperately needed to keep their plan of running it back from falling apart, and now go into the season with a slightly shuffled backcourt, hoping to find a spark that didn’t exist a year ago.