Dennis Schroder is running out of options

I tried to figure out where Dennis Schroder is going to sign.

I had a very hard time with this exercise.https://t.co/jnfYXbJEsl

— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) August 5, 2021

1. Signing with another team outright

Only three teams still have the ability to create more than $10 million in cap space. Needless to say, none of these paths are all that likely to lead to the jackpot Schroder turned down. Financially speaking, his best bet is probably to work with the Lakers in some way purely for the sake of his Bird Rights. Both of those routes are just as fraught.

2. Sign-and-trade options

There just aren’t that many obvious homes here. At that stage, it’s worth wondering if Schroder might get desperate enough to go back to the bargaining table with the team he expected to leave.

3. Re-signing with the Lakers

There are so many reasons why Dennis Schroder is not going to re-sign with the Lakers. They already have six guards that expect to play, for starters: Westbrook, Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore, Malik Monk, Kendrick Nunn and Talen Horton-Tucker. The two sides hardly had a positive experience together last season. And then there’s the tax bill.

4. So what’s going to happen?

The truth is that we’re practically in uncharted waters here. Aside from Nerlens Noel declining a $72 million offer only to play for the minimum a year later, there just isn’t much of a precedent for a player somewhat credibly believing that more than $84 million would be available for them in free agency only to find that their best option might be a mid-level exception. With so little history to go off of, almost anything is on the table right now. There is no easy answer for him after he so enormously misevaluated his own worth on the open market.