Dennis Schroder unlikely to be bought out by Rockets, Goran Dragic signs with Nets

If the Lakers are going to upgrade at the point guard position in the buyout market, it’s not going to come from one of their main targets. After news that Goran Dragic signed with the Nets came out on Monday, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein reported on the status of Dennis Schröder in Houston, and it doesn’t sound like either side is interested in a buyout.

Both Dragic and Schröder were linked to the Lakers, either at the trade deadline for the latter, or in the buyout market for the former:

Point guard isn’t an area of dire need for the Lakers, certainly not more so than help at the center position or on the wing. But since trading away Rajon Rondo earlier in the season, the Lakers have not added another point guard.

Russell Westbrook and LeBron James eat up effectively all the point guard minutes, which is why it hasn’t been a need for the Lakers to sign one, and Dragic — the only one of these two players to come available so far — made his decision on Monday to sign with the Nets, officially joining former teammate and Brooklyn head coach Steve Nash in the process.

With both names off the board, the options for point guards are dire. The Nets waived Jevon Carter to make room for Dragic, but Carter will reportedly sign with the Milwaukee Bucks. Eric Bledsoe could be bought out by the Blazers in the coming week, but he would hardly be a good fit in Los Angeles with his lack of shooting, even if he’s a Klutch Sports client. Tomas Satoransky is another option, but a less appealing one, and certainly much further down the list than other non-point guard names likely will be.

The Lakers targeting point guards mainly felt like the team going after some of the top talent available and less about needing to replace a hole in the roster. The team has chugged along without Rondo perfectly fine — at least at point guard — and it feels unlikely they’ll be eager to add another one unless it’s a very obvious upgrade.

Instead, expect them to be seriously targeting other bigs and wings with the March 1 deadline approaching when players have to be bought out in order to still be eligible for playoff rosters.

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