Spencer Dinwiddie is thriving for the injury-riddled Nets
By John Hugar
Going into the 2017-18 season, there was genuine excitement for Brooklyn Nets fans. Sure, the team wasn’t expected to contend for much of anything, but after years of sitting in the basement of the Eastern Conference (and not having their own draft picks to show for it), the consensus was that the Nets would be frisky, competitive, and maybe even capable of grabbing the eighth seed in a weak East.
Why was their such optimism? Part of it was because of the surprising depth the team had attained at the guard positions. Jeremy Lin was going to be healthy again, and D’Angelo Russell and Allen Crabbe would add considerably potency to the Brooklyn offense. Well, less than a quarter into the season, all three of those players are currently out with injuries. Granted, Crabbe will likely return soon, but Lin is out for the year, and there’s no timetable for Russell’s return. So, how have the Nets avoided being a hopeless mess? A lot of it can be attributed to the solid play of Spencer Dinwiddie, who has made the most of being thrust into the starting lineup.
After two seasons of struggling to crack the rotation in Detroit, the Nets took a flier on Dinwiddie in 2016. He was quietly effective last season, averaging 7.3 points per game, and starting 18 games thanks to injuries to Lin and the inexperience of Isaiah Whitehead. Dinwiddie was a capable rotation player on a team with no immediate ambitions. He had proved that he belonged in the NBA but not much else. You could hardly blame Nets fans for not being particularly excited about this development. This season, however, Dinwiddie has raised his game to a new level and allowed the Nets to remain competitive while dealing with a seemingly endless string of injuries.
What’s changed for Dinwiddie? For one thing, he’s taking on a far more assertive role in the offense. While his minutes per game have increased just slightly, from 22.6 to 25.3, Dinwiddie’s points per game have shot way up, from 7.3 to 11.9. A large part of this has been thanks to an increase in usage, as Dinwiddie’s usage rate has increased from 14.1 percent to 20.1 percent this season. If Dinwiddie was a bit tentative last year, he’s shaken off that aspect of his game and evolved into an assertive scorer.
Also, helping matters is Dinwiddie’s improvement from beyond the arc. He’s hitting a career-high 40.5 percent on 3-pointers (including 45.9 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers), which has translated to a true shooting percentage of 53.5. Dinwiddie has become an essential part of the Nets offense, and with Russell out for the foreseeable future, Dinwiddie could be Brooklyn’s most important offensive player for quite some time.
Admittedly, there are some aspects of Dinwiddie’s game that could use improvement. As great as he is from downtown, he could stand to be a lot better from within the arc. Dinwiddie is hitting just 37.6 percent on 2-point shots, including a ghastly 10.2 percent on shots between 10 and 16 feet from the basket. This hasn’t hampered Dinwiddie’s game too much because he knows where to pick his spots; 47.5 percent of his shot attempts have come from downtown, so he seems aware that long-range shooting is the strongest aspect of his game. His skills as a shooter are a big part of why he’s playing such efficient basketball, but if he can shoot a bit better around the basket and on mid-range shots, his game could still reach a higher level.
Dinwiddie’s strong play in the wake of injuries to Lin, Russell, and Crabbe has been a blessing for the Nets this year. The team is once again without their own pick and has no reason to tank. Admittedly at 7-12, they aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but they are far more frisky and competitive than we’ve seen them in recent seasons. Dinwiddie’s strong play has been a big part of that, as he’s prevented them from being a disaster at the point guard position.
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The Nets have Dinwiddie under contract through the 2019 season on an extremely manageable deal (he makes just over $1.5 million in each of the next two seasons). While one can assume that Russell will be a big part of the Nets future, considering that they let go of Brook Lopez and took on Timofey Mozgov’s contract to get him, that may not matter much for Dinwiddie. Based on his strong play this season, it looks like Spencer Dinwiddie will be a relevant NBA player for years to come, whether in Brooklyn or not.