Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel has yet to make a final decision on the team’s starting point guard, though he’s open to having newcomer Dennis Schroder handle the role and ease the burden on LeBron James.
Frank Vogel on Dennis Schroder possibly starting at PG to start the season: "I haven't made any final decisions on that. It's definitely something I want to look at. See how he and LeBron look together sharing the ballhandling responsibilities." pic.twitter.com/vYNbzLizs0
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) December 17, 2020
Vogel went into further depth on the reasons for considering Schroder, including his on-court assets.
“I think there’s real value in lightening some of the load for LeBron, not all of it,” Vogel said. “The great thing about Dennis is that he’s very effective with the basketball or on the second side, attacking on the second side. I really like the speed he represents, even running the floor if LeBron is your quarterback, and you have guys like KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), Kuz (Kyle Kuzma), Wes Matthews, obviously AD (Anthony Davis) at the big position, running the floor with LeBron running the break as the quarterback. So there’s a lot of things that theoretically look good that we just haven’t seen a lot of, and we’ll make those decisions when the time comes. But definitely something I want to look at that I believe will work.”
Schroder was acquired last month from the Oklahoma City Thunder and made clear that he wants to be a part of the Lakers’ starting lineup.
The comments by Vogel are similar to his remarks earlier this month about wanting to have Schroder and James on the court at the same time.
Schroder has shown he can serve as a scoring outlet during his previous seasons in the NBA. Even if he’s not in the starting lineup for next week’s regular-season opener, that setup could change as the season goes on.
