One player who is beginning to get more comfortable with the Los Angeles Lakers is veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie. He had struggled since joining the team in the buyout market, particularly offensively, but still provided good defense and playmaking even when his shot hasn’t been falling.
Dinwiddie has begun to turn things around lately, however, taking on a bigger role in the absence of some injured players and increasing his scoring output as a result. In particular, his 26-point night against the Indiana Pacers in a spot start with D’Angelo Russell out due to illness showed exactly why the Lakers brought him in, and that he can deliver in a bigger role if needed.
Obviously as he was a buyout addition, Dinwiddie will hit free agency this summer and be able to join whatever team he wants. But in his appearance on the ‘Point Game’ podcast with John Wall, Dinwiddie made it clear he would love to remain with the Lakers going forward:
“Oh 1,000 percent. That’d be love. That would be a dream come true.”
It is well known that Dinwiddie is a hometown player, having grown up in the Los Angeles area and attending Taft High School in Woodland Hills. To be able to remain with the team he grew up rooting for and continue his NBA career at home would be a dream, as he said.
But there will be a lot of factors into whether or not Dinwiddie remains with the Lakers this offseason. One extremely important factor will be what happens with fellow point guard D’Angelo Russell, who has a player option on his contract this summer for $18 million.
With his play this season, Russell could be in line for a big payday this summer and a team might be able to pry him away from the Lakers. If that is the case, it could increase the odds Dinwiddie remains with the franchise, but as is always the case with these things, money will ultimately be the deciding factor.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves preaching to Spencer Dinwiddie to continue to ‘be himself’
For now, the focus remains on the task at hand for these Lakers, which is getting into the playoffs and making some noise in the postseason. In order for that to happen, the Lakers need Dinwiddie to play at a high level and his teammates are in his corner.
Austin Reaves said that the Lakers are continuing to preach to Dinwiddie to just ‘be himself.’ Reaves added that it isn’t easy to step into the situation that Dinwiddie has with the Lakers, but in the end the team needs him to play at his best.
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