More On:

los angeles lakers

Damian Lillard’s plea for Jason Kidd blew up in his face

LeBron James has open invitation to return to former team

LeBron James didn’t have anything left after ‘draining’ season

LeBron James is out of the playoffs

One of the greatest Lakers of all-time says one of the newest Lakers doesn’t belong.

Magic Johnson, the Lakers Hall of Famer who also has been a coach and executive for the franchise, called out Dennis Schroder after he had a disappointing playoff series entering his free agency.

“Schroder, I don’t think he’s a Laker,” Johnson said Friday on AM570 LA Sports. “That’s just my opinion. I don’t know if they’re going to sign him back or not. I don’t think he brings the winning mentality and attitude that we need.

“And he had a chance to show that in this series and, to me, he failed in this series. But again, if he comes back a Laker, I’m going to support him, I’m going cheer for him and all that, but I just don’t think he’s a Laker.”

The Lakers were eliminated by the Suns in a six-game first-round series. Schroder averaged 14.3 points, three rebounds and 2.8 assists, but he was scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting in the pivotal Game 5 blowout.

Coming off an NBA championship, the Lakers traded Danny Green and Jaden McDaniels to the Thunder for Schroder in November. Schroder, who averaged a career-high 19.4 points per game with the 2017-18 Hawks and backed it up with 18.9 points per game for the 2019-20 Thunder, was supposed to lessen the scoring and ball-handling burdens on LeBron James.

Of the court, Schroder caused a stir when he removed any mention of the Lakers from his Instagram account’s bio section before Game 6 against the Suns. He added it back before tip-off in response to a social-media craze and then removed it again when the season officially ended.

Schroder said he would “give everything” to return to the Lakers. He reportedly rejected a four-year, $84 million contract extension offer in March.

Share this article:

Source: Read Full Article