The Los Angeles Lakers were without a few players for their preseason finale against the Sacramento Kings. While they insisted that both Anthony Davis and Lonnie Walker IV sat for precautionary reasons and will be ready for next week’s season opener, the same can not be said just yet for Dennis Schroder.
The Lakers brought back Schroder to be another playmaker and perimeter defender, but he has barely been able to get started in his second run with the team. A visa issue prevented him from joining the Lakers at the outset and now a finger injury is threatening to keep him out for some time.
According to Shams Charania of The Rally, the Lakers have some concern that Schroder’s finger injury could be a long-term one for him:
“Sources tell me that Dennis Schroder did not travel to the Lakers preseason game tonight in Sacramento. He’s going to continue to be evaluated with a right finger injury. The Lakers do have some worry that this could be a long-term injury for him, but they remain waiting in seeing how the evaluation goes.
This would be awful news for Schroder, who was just getting back in the swing of things with the Lakers. It remains unknown whether this is a minor or more serious injury, but the Lakers will undoubtedly be hoping for the latter as Schroder brings another dimension the team could use.
Injuries absolutely decimated the Lakers last season, and news like this is concerning and hopefully isn’t a sign of things to come.
Lakers expected to engage in Westbrook trade conversations once regular season begins
Schroder being healthy could become even more important if the Lakers are able to deal away Russell Westbrook as many expect them to do. The front office had discussions throughout the offseason and according to the latest reports, once the season kicks off, they are expected to re-engage in those trade talks.
Trade talks tend to die down once training camp begins, but once rosters are set and the games begin, things pick back up. Especially this year with teams potentially looking to join the race for Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson in the NBA Draft, options that weren’t available in the summer could suddenly become available.
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