Los Angeles Lakers guard Spencer Dinwiddie didn’t have to wait long to find a new home after he was waived by the Toronto Raptors.
Dinwiddie was dealt by the Brooklyn Nets to Toronto, who subsequently waived him to avoid paying him the contract bonus he was owed. The Lakers then swooped on the opportunity and signed him to a deal for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
The veteran guard shored up a backcourt rotation that was thin behind D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves and has become a trusted member of head coach Darvin Ham’s rotation.
Although his time with the franchise has been short, Dinwiddie admitted he’s having more fun back home in Los Angeles than he did with Brooklyn. Having grown up in L.A. and played in Brooklyn, Dinwiddie compared the Lakers and L.A. Clippers dynamic to the New York Knicks and Nets.
“Hell yeah,” Dinwiddie said. “You got to remember, man, not to beat a dead horse, but as an L.A. kid, every other kid grows up a Lakers fan. If they say they grew up a Clippers fan, they’re lying. It don’t exist. It’s kind of the same way with Knicks-Nets type thing. Just the history and everything. Even when the Clippers are good, like they’re really good this year, but it’s a Lakers town. It is what it is.
“So you combine that with getting to play with arguably the greatest player of all-time and at the same time, playing meaningful basketball, being in a playoff race, playoff hunt, obviously contributing and having an impact, having different moments like starting and scoring big and also being a defensive stopper and blocking Dame and stuff like that, those are things that I’ll be able to share with my kids. I don’t want to try to fake it like I’m old, [LeBron’s] 40, I’m 30. But in general, you want to have purpose in this thing, you don’t want to be flying in the wind and getting blamed for everything while you’re flying in the wind. That’s ass. There’s nothing fun about that. At all.”
Dinwiddie recently spoke about his experience with the Nets and said he believes his time there was mischaracterized. Dinwiddie was often blamed for Brooklyn’s struggles, and he clearly hasn’t forgotten how he was portrayed.
However, by all accounts Dinwiddie has fit in with the Lakers and will have an interesting decision to make when he hits free agency.
Spencer Dinwiddie 1,000 percent wants to remain with Lakers past 2023-24 season
Spencer Dinwiddie will hit unrestricted free agency this summer and has already acknowledged that he would 1,000 percent like to stay with Los Angeles.
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