Boston Celtics and Dennis Schroder agree to $ 5.9million, one-year deal

Free agent playmaker Dennis Schroder is heading to the Boston Celtics, he announced on his Instagram account on Tuesday.

The deal is for a year and will cover the $ 5.9 million mid-level taxpayer exception, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Schroder, who turns 28 in September, was the last free agent without significant compensation left in the market. He turned down a lucrative Los Angeles Lakers regular-season extension offer worth north of $ 80 million to secure a bigger deal this summer.

In Boston, Schroder joins a Celtics team with a hole in the leader following Kemba Walker’s trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder, allowing him to increase his value when he returns to the market as an agent. free next summer.

“I am proud to announce that for the 2021-22 season, I will be playing for the Boston Celtics!” Schroder wrote on Instagram. “This is one of the best franchises in NBA history and it will be an honor to put on the green and the white and do what I love! I go there every night and I leave everything by land for the city !! Who’s ready? “

The Lakers acquired Schroder in a trade with the Thunder in last year’s NBA Draft in exchange for Danny Green and last year’s first-round pick.

Schroder averaged 15.4 points and 5.8 assists in 61 games – all starts – for the Lakers, but he was mired in controversy after missing 11 days late in the regular season after entering protocols NBA Health and Safety. He told a German publication that he and LeBron James were the only Lakers players not to be vaccinated, before telling local reporters on his return: “I’m the only guy who hasn’t been vaccinated. will just leave it at this. “

He then averaged 14.3 points but shot just 40% from the field and 30.3% from the 3-point line in the Lakers’ loss to the Phoenix Suns in six games in the first round of the playoffs. of the Western Conference.

“You have to go through the bulls — to get to the right ones —,” Schroder told reporters at his season-ending press conference after the Suns series.

By signing Schroder for the mid-level taxpayer exception, as well as signing center Enes Kanter for a one-year minimum contract, Boston is now sitting at just over $ 4 million on the luxury tax line with 15 guaranteed contracts on his list.

The Celtics have just had a disappointing season that saw them finish seventh in the East and lose in five games to the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. After the season ended, longtime president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stepped down, longtime coach Brad Stevens took his place and the Celtics hired Nets Ime assistant. Udoka to replace him.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, faces a nearly $ 200 million payroll and luxury tax bill, even without Schroder, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, after trading for Russell Westbrook, signing Kendrick Nunn for a two-year contract worth $ 10 million, re-signing Talen Horton-Tucker to a three-year $ 32 million contract and filling the rest of the list with minimum one-year contracts, including including contracts for future Hall of Fame members Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard.