Free-agent point guard Dennis Schroder is headed to the Boston Celtics, he announced Tuesday on his Instagram account.
The deal is for one year and will be for the $5.9 million taxpayer's mid-level exception, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Schroder, who turns 28 in September, was the last remaining significant unrestricted free agent on the market. He turned down the maximum extension the Los Angeles Lakers were eligible to offer him during the regular season, worth north of $80 million, to pursue a more lucrative deal come the summer.
In Boston, Schroder steps into a Celtics team with a hole at point guard in the wake of Kemba Walker being traded to Oklahoma City, allowing him a chance to to boost his value for when he will hit the market again as a free agent next summer.
"I'm proud to announce that for the 2021-22 season I'll be playing for the Boston Celtics!" Schroder wrote on his Instagram stories. "This is one of the best franchises in NBA history and it will be a honour to put on the green and white and do what I love! I'm going out there every night and living it all on the floor for the city!! Who's ready?"
The Lakers had acquired Schroder in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder at 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 was mired in controversy after he missed 11 days late in the regular season due to entering the NBA's health and safety protocols. He told a German publication he and LeBron James were the only Lakers to not get vaccinated, before then telling local reporters upon his return that, "I'm the only guy that didn't get vaccinated. I'll just leave it at that."
He then averaged 14.3 points but shot just 40 percent from the field and 30.3 percent from the 3-point line in the Lakers' six-game loss to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
"You got to go through the bulls--- to get to the good s---," Schroder told reporters in his end-of-season news conference after that Suns series.
By signing Schroder for the taxpayer's mid-level exception, along with signing center Enes Kanter for a one-year minimum deal, Boston now is sitting a little over $4 million over the luxury tax line with 15 guaranteed contracts on their roster.
The Celtics are coming off 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 year ended, longtime president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stepped aside, longtime coach Brad Stevens took his place and the Celtics hired Nets assistant Ime Udoka to replace him.
Los Angeles, meanwhile, is now facing a massive payroll and luxury tax bill of close to $200 million even without Schroder, per ESPN's Bobby Marks, after trading for Russell Westbrook, signing Kendrick Nunn to a two-year deal worth $10 million, re-signing Talen Horton-Tucker to a three-year, $32 million deal and filling out the rest of the roster with one-year minimum deals, including future Hall of Famers Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard.