Uncertainty for Lakers, Raptors after trade deadline
All the trades have been made. This season’s roster shuffling, barring a freeagent signing or three coming soon, is complete.
It’s time, then, to take a tour around the league for some post-trade deadline fallout, rumbles, analysis and storytelling:
Don’t be surprised that the Lakers were prepared to trade Dennis Schröder.
One of the Lakers’ prime offseason acquisitions, Schröder featured in trade talks with the Raptors for Kyle Lowry. The discussions broke down over the Lakers’ unwillingness to include the blossoming Talen Horton-Tucker in a deal for Lowry, 35, who will become a free agent at season’s end.
Schröder, 27, was available because of the gulf between player and team in contract extension talks. He has rebuffed extension offers from the Lakers in the range of $80 million over four years, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Schröder’s efficiency has slumped since his productive 2019-20 season in Oklahoma City, but he is said to be seeking more robust compensation in free agency this offseason. His previous biggest deal was a four-year, $70 million contract extension signed with the Hawks in October 2016.
More surprising than Schröder’s availability was the Lakers’ willingness to package him with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope after Caldwell-Pope was such a key contributor to last season’s championship — and when Caldwell-Pope, like Anthony Davis and LeBron James, is represented by the influential agent Rich Paul.
Lowry’s future isn’t the only free-agent drama looming for the Raptors.
Masai Ujiri, the Raptors’ president of basketball operations, is also in the final year of his contract. There were strong rumbles last summer that Ujiri, general manager Bobby Webster and coach Nick Nurse were all poised to receive new five-year deals from the Raptors. Nurse and Webster have since signed long-term contracts, but Ujiri has repeatedly deflected questions about his future.
Like Lowry, Ujiri has been regarded by fans and the organization as Raptors royalty since the team’s championship run in 2018-19. It is widely presumed in league circles that only an overwhelming offer in a highly desirable market could lure him away from the influence and affection he has amassed in Toronto. Yet these many months without a deal and Webster’s rising profile as a natural successor have raised the question: How much longer will Ujiri be running the Raptors?
For a Canadian public edgy about the prospect of Lowry and Ujiri potentially hitting free agency at the same time, this counterquestion should provide some measure of comfort: Where would Ujiri go?
He was known to have interest in the Knicks’ job before James Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, abruptly decided last spring to abandon the pursuit of Ujiri to instead hire Leon Rose, a prominent former player agent. A worthy post-Toronto landing spot is difficult to pinpoint unless the Wizards, who vehemently denied being interested after the Raptors’ championship, amend that stance.