NBA Rumors: The Los Angeles Lakers are concerned that Dennis Schroder’s recent injury could be a long-term problem this season.
The start of the season is here for the Los Angeles Lakers, but it’s been every thing but positive thus far. In fact, you can make the argument that the Lakers have already started off the regular season on the wrong foot. What makes matters worse is the fact that the Lakers have yet to play a regular season game.
The Lakers have continued to struggle to find a way to integrate Russell Westbrook next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and even tried to bring him off the bench. It remains to be seen if that is something that will carry into the regular season, but there’s also a chance that we may not even see Westbrook in the opener.
He left the teams final preseason game with a hamstring injury and didn’t return.
Dennis Schroder’s finger/hand injury
But that’s not all that has some inside the Lakers organization worried heading into the season. One of the team’s key signees during free agency was Dennis Schroder. After the performance, he had in EuroBasket, the expectation was that Schroder would end up being a key part of the Lakers bench this season.
Though, there is some long-term concern as he continues to battle a finger injury.
And this is not to say that the expectation was that Schroder was going to play a big part in the teams overall offense, but he could be a legit contributor off the bench and as a role player for the team.
Not having his offensive explosiveness off the bench is going to leave a void on the Lakers roster. Even more so if the Lakers continue to stand pat with Westbrook, or even if they trade him for an underwhelming package at some point during the season.
Not to mention that the Lakers are going to lose some depth if Schroder isn’t ready to play sooner rather than later. For a team that is entering a season in which they really don’t have much margin for error, this is not a great situation that the Lakers may have on their hands.
if the Lakers are going to surprise the masses and accomplish things this season that not many are expecting them to do, they are going to need all hands on deck. That means they’re going to need healthy bodies for the majority of the season, with every player buying into the championship vision.
Right now, as the regular season quickly approaches, I’m not sure that’s something you can say about the Lakers.