Western wannabe contender eyeing another reunion with Raptors' Dennis Schroder

The Toronto Raptors appear to be taking bids on every player outside of their recently acquired core of Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley. As the fire sale begins, it's not inconceivable to assume that Dennis Schroder could find himself playing elsewhere relatively soon.

While Schroder signed a two-year contract after the Raptors let Fred VanVleet walk and hired one of his most vocal supporters in Darko Rajakovic, the German point guard and FIBA World Cup superstar lost his starting spot midway through the season, which goes against his desire for a bigger role than he had with the Los Angeles Lakers last year.

Even though the Lakers are far from a championship contender, any team that has LeBron James would be ripped apart by the fanbase for perceived inactivity at the trade deadline. Rob Pelinka might want to get the band back together with one last big move.

According to ESPN's Dave McMenamin, the Lakers are interested in both Schroder and Bruce Brown, the latter of whom they thirsted over as a free agent. While the Raptors might be in full fire sale mode, they won't move a player like Schroder unless an LA team lacking in assets meets their expected price.

Lakers targeting Toronto Raptors PG Dennis Schroder.

Schroder is averaging 13.9 points and 6.3 assists per game on robust 45/36/86 shooting splits. On a team that lacks individual creators and solid free throw shooters, Schroder doing both of those tasks at an above-average clip while providing his usual style of pesky defense has justified the contract handed out to him.

The Raptors are asking for a first-round pick and a solid young player in exchange for Bruce Brown. While that asking price might be tough to match for Schroder, some draft compensation and a player worth Toronto's time is by no means an unreasonable ask for a player like Schroder.

Schroder played with the Lakers on two separate occasions in the past two seasons, once again alternating between a solid (if often infuriating) starter and standout bench scorer. What role he would play on a Los Angeles team that is all over the map right now would still remain to be seen.

The tough part about trading with the Lakers is years of win-now moves have left them extremely limited in terms of what they can actually manage to part with in a trade. Will LA man up and find a way to get their old point guard back in town?