NBA: Dennis Schröder and his start with the Los Angeles Lakers

Dennis Schröder has made a promising start with the Los Angeles Lakers. The combination of the German national player with LeBron James and Anthony Davis has a lot of potential – even beyond this season.

After two weeks in the new season, the entire league is still in the discovery phase. The Lakers are no exception, even if the reigning champions started again strong with 5-2 and are currently at the top of their conference together with the Clippers and Suns. Everything is still not right, especially Anthony Davis has not really arrived in the season for his standards.

As you know, there are also a few new faces that have to be integrated into the team – including Dennis Schröder. However, the integration of the German national player has gone extremely smoothly so far, apart from the fact that Schröder apparently rejected an early contract extension before the start of the season.

“Of course I would love to extend this here, but it has to be fair for both sides. That’s all I have to say,” commented Schröder on the report that the two years and $ 33.4 million offered were not enough for him. But what is not, can still be: The Lakers can improve their offer until February, the talks will probably continue.

And in the meantime, Schröder is giving the Lakers pretty much what they were hoping for when they traded for him in the offseason – and his best possible role may not have been found yet.

Dennis Schröder is the new number 3 at the Lakers

Schröder has so far placed himself behind the two superstars LeBron James and Davis both in terms of minutes (30.4) and points (16.3). After James he plays the second most assists (4.9) and is often the one who should lead the offensive when the now 36-year-old goes on the bench. So far, however, Schröder and LeBron have achieved the best results together.

So far, they have both been on the court together for 20.3 minutes per game, during this time the Lakers sweep their opponents out of the hall with +23.1 points per 100 possession of the ball.

The offense benefits a lot from the fact that in this lineup there are two dynamic playmakers (as well as an outstanding play finisher in Davis) on the court, although Schröder and LeBron sometimes take turns – for example, LeBron has only prepared a single field goal by Schröder.

Dennis Schröder finds himself well with the Lakers

But this is known to be very good at earning points for himself. The 27-year-old is not pushing anything unnecessary, but takes the degrees he is supposed to take with the right self-image. Schröder’s speed on the way to the basket is a component that the Lakers missed almost entirely last season.

His throw from distance is not quite at the level of the previous season, but good enough. At the moment the Lakers, still a bad shooting team as champions, are even among the three best teams in terms of three-man quota (40.6 percent). Of the 91 Lakers threesomes so far, Schröder has hit ten himself and prepared ten more.

Playmaking is more in demand than in the previous season, when Schröder almost always had at least one other point guard next to him at OKC and, above all, was supposed to be the scorer. Especially in the minutes without LeBron, Schröder initiates the offense and is mainly responsible for putting Davis in the limelight, with whom he spends almost all of his minutes together on the court.

Anthony Davis benefits from Dennis Schröder

Davis is not yet acting at the usual level, especially since his role has shifted a little more to the outside. Nevertheless, both are already working on good chemistry and Schröder has so far set as many field goals as LeBron (12). With a little more time, the interaction of the two should only develop better.

It is to be expected that this two-man game will eventually become what the Lakers were looking for for a long time last season: the identity of the offense when James is seated. The four-time MVP is currently playing the fewest minutes of his career, but is still shouldering a greater burden than the Lakers actually want in this compressed season.

James himself doesn’t believe in load management, but his head coach Frank Vogel sees it a little differently. “We will have to keep a responsible eye on his minutes and his load,” Vogel said recently. The Lakers may want to protect LeBron from themselves to a certain extent.

Dennis Schröder no longer insists on the starter role

Schröder imposes itself as a player who could then take on a little more shares. The more Vogel gets to know his new team, the more the rotation could shift so that Schröder gets more minutes without James than the previous ten per game in order to make better use of his skills. Even if that means it may not always start.

Before the start of the season, Schröder himself practically insisted on playing from the start, and in terms of play, he justified this claim. Even so, his stakes as a banker could be bigger. He recently sounded nowhere near as aggressive in that regard.

“I’m a team player. Whatever it takes, what I have to do, I’ll do it. We’re all about wins,” said Schröder. “That was my personal thing. I wanted to start this year, but I’m a team player and I bring whatever I need. I don’t worry.”