The Los Angeles Lakers may not have made any moves at the NBA trade deadline, but they did manage to bring in a useful rotation player in Spencer Dinwiddie.
Dinwiddie was traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Toronto Raptors and was subsequently waived because of his $1.5 million contract bonus. Players of Dinwiddie’s caliber don’t normally hit the free agency market midseason, so the Lakers did well to court him and eventually sign him for the rest of the 2023-24 season.
It didn’t take long for Dinwiddie to become a fixture in head coach Darvin Ham’s rotation as he’s been one of the first backups off the bench and has even started a few games.
Ahead of Los Angeles’ matchup against the Brooklyn Nets, Dinwiddie decided to remain mum on his departure, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“Honestly, it’s Easter Sunday and my mom told me to stand down so I have absolutely zero comment at the moment,” Dinwiddie said.
However, Dinwiddie eventually began to open up and emphasized how all the details about his exit were mischaracterized:
“Everything. Everything. Every single thing. Everything. I know you guys have a job to do and I know that people say what they say other places whether it be organizations, other positions, or whatever. So obviously as a player, there’s things that get mischaracterized and questions drowned out and that’s kind of the situation I ended up in.
“It was fun guarding primary people while I was here and it’s fun guarding primary people now. I understand that my 2024 has been largely about playing defense and on this team I think it’s been something that’s been celebrated, appreciated and I’m looking forward to trying, again, put the cherry on top to help with a championship run and helping the Lakers organization as a whole prove they’re the greatest franchise.”
While there was a narrative that Dinwiddie didn’t contribute to winning, he went out of his way to explain what he brought to the table:
“Beyond being one of the top assists guys on the Nets, I was one of the top assists guys in the league,” Dinwiddie explained. “I think I’m top-10 in clutch assists this year and not had the ball. The other guys on the list are all max players. Last year when I came back I led the league in assists in March. Consistently three or four to one assist-to-turnover ratio. “In terms of producing offense, I think even when I left the Nets the most efficient offensive play of the team of the whole hat was a Nic Claxton Spencer Dinwiddie pick and roll.
“Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t. People can say what they want about me, and again, I’m respecting my mother, but when you really get into it and break it down I was number two in the entire league in plus-minus in December when the Nets had their most successful stretch of basketball during the season which was a 7-2 stretch that they haven’t been able to duplicate since. It is what it is.”
It’s clear that Dinwiddie harbors some negative feelings about his leave from Brooklyn, but so far he’s fit in just fine with Los Angeles. Players like Austin Reaves have encouraged him to be himself and he’s been doing just that.
Spencer Dinwiddie says he 1,000% wants to remain with Lakers beyond 2023-24 season
Dinwiddie is set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer and he has already admitted he’d 1,000% love to stay with the the Lakers.
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