Lakers Star Anthony Davis Was Frustrated by Former Teammate

Dennis Schroder is no longer a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and details continue to emerge about how his tenure with the team did not go as planned.

The latest tidbit of information that revealed some tension in the Lakers’ clubhouse comes via Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, who reported that star forward Anthony Davis was frustrated that Schroder could not provide him the looks that Rajon Rondo did with his savvy passing previously.

Per an NBA source familiar with some of the Lakers’ struggles through the 2020-21 campaign, Davis felt some frustration that he wasn’t getting the kind of looks in the post with Dennis Schroder running the point compared to those he received with Rondo a year earlier.

To be fair, Schroder did not have a ton of time to get on the same page as Davis during his lone season in Los Angeles. The eight-time All-Star big man missed nearly half the season with a variety of different lower body injuries.

Schroder averaged 15.4 points, 5.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game. However, the consistency from Schroder as both a playmaker and scorer was not always there and he had a tough postseason. In Games 5 and 6 against the Suns he shot 3-of-22 from the field and scored just eight combined points.

In the games he did play, Davis averaged 21.8 points and 7.9, but looked far from the dominant force that helped the Lakers win the title in 2020.

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Schroder Had Beef With Other Teammates

Schroder has been known to be a pest to play against — ask Kyrie Irving — but doesn’t seem like the strongest locker room presence. The German guard also had beef with now-Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma during the year, per  Jordan Schultz of ESPN.

“League sources say Dennis Schroder and Kyle Kuzma feuded throughout the season, with things going further south throughout the Lakers’ first-round series loss to Phoenix,” Schultz tweeted in July.

Schroder entered free agency this offseason but didn’t receive the attention he anticipated. He ended up inking just a one-year deal worth $5.9 million with the Boston Celtics.

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Lakers Bring Rondo Back After Buyout

Davis will be happy to have Rondo back by his side this season. The Lakers inked Rondo to a deal this week after he agreed to a buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies and cleared waivers.

Rondo, like many of the other Lakers, is eager to quiet the haters who are calling the team “too old.”

“I’m looking forward to it, looking forward to the naysayers saying our age being a problem, but you don’t have longevity in this league without discipline,” said Rondo, who will turn 36 next season. “We have guys that have the mileage but there’s a reason they’re still playing in this league at this level for so many years. So I’m not worried about anything or the spectators saying age makes a difference. I think the mind is going to be a big key in why we win this year.”

Last season Rondo averaged 17.1 minutes per game last season, putting up 5.4 points and 4.4 assists. But as Lakers head coach Frank Vogel has said previously, there are some things that Rondo does that can’t quite be quantified in a box score.

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