Getty Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyrie Irving at Barclays Center in 2020.
For the Brooklyn Nets, having an All-Star trio of Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant has already come at a hefty price. In the blockbuster trade that brought ‘The Beard’ to Brooklyn last January, the Nets had to part ways with several of their young players including Indiana Pacers wing Caris LeVert, and Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen.
But that wasn’t all that the Nets lost in the Harden deal. The team also made the tough decision to part ways with rising guard Spencer Dinwiddie this past summer. Dinwiddie was sent to the Washington Wizards in a sign and trade on a 3-year / $62 million deal that paired him in the backcourt with All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He was expected to serve as a replacement for former NBA Most Valuable Player Russell Westbrook who was traded from the Wizards to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Montrezl Harrell and Kyle Kuzma last summer.
Washington is sending Chandler Hutchinson and a 2022 second-round pick to San Antonio as part of a multi-team deal in the Spencer Dinwiddie sign-and-trade, sources tell ESPN. Brooklyn gets a 2024 second and a 2025 pick swap from Wizards.
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Spencer Dinwiddie Being Shopped by Wizards
Dinwiddie however, is quickly starting to learn that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Kevin O’Connor of “The Ringer” reports that the Wizards are looking to move on from Dinwiddie ahead of the February 10 trade deadline.
“The Wizards want to move Dinwiddie because he looks like a shell of his former self and his teammates don’t want him there,” O’Conner reported on Monday.
“The Wizards want to move Dinwiddie because he looks like a shell of his former self and his teammates don’t want him there.” 😬
– @KevinOConnorNBA on Spencer Dinwiddie
(Via t.co/QdVbajhBWL)
Just three games into the 2020-21 season, Dinwiddie partially tore his ACL. Most expected him to be out for the year, but Dinwiddie came back from the injury faster than anyone expected. He was cleared for all basketball activities in May, just days after the Nets Game 7 Elimination to the Milwaukee Bucks.
But After averaging a career-high 20.6 points per game in his breakout year with the Nets during the 2019 season, Dinwiddie is averaging just 13.2 points per game in his debut season with the Wizards, his lowest scoring average since the 2017-18 season.
Dinwiddie Details Surprise Response To Taking on Leadership Role
Fitting in with a new squad is an adjustment whether a player is traded to that team or joins voluntarily in free agency. And for Dinwiddie, he is still trying to find his footing. The former Brooklyn Net detailed a time this season where he tried to take on a leadership role in the Wizards locker room and it did not go how he expected it to.
“It’s an interesting situation. I spoke up a little bit early on [this season]. It wasn’t necessarily welcomed. And so, like I said, I try to do whatever’s asked of me. At the end of the day, everybody has a role to play,” Dinwiddie told reporters per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports.
“It’s about being accountable in your role and doing that to the best of your ability. That’s really all I’ve got.”
“… It’s about being accountable in your role and doing that to the best of your ability. That’s really all I’ve got.”
The Wizards at one point this season held the top spot in the Eastern Conference but have since fallen to 23-26 and if the season ended today, they would not even qualify for the play-in game. With the trade deadline a little over a week away it will be interesting to see if Dinwiddie stays put or is traded elsewhere.
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