Getty Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith share a laugh on the Brooklyn Nets bench.
With the NBA Playoffs about to kick off, tempers are flaring, and emotions are ready to boil over. During an appearance on FanDuel TV’s “Run It Back” with Michelle Beadle, Brooklyn Nets star Spencer Dinwiddie added fuel to the beef between him and his former teammate, Washington Wizards star, Kyle Kuzma. Dinwiddie questioned his commitment to the game, insinuating that his priorities are misplaced.
“There’s a lot of guys in the NBA that really pour their heart and soul into basketball. If we look at him and the way he approaches life, fame, all that stuff, we can see that his priorities tend to vary,” Dinwiddie said to Beadle.
“You know that you are there, shooting shots to try to get a contract. You’re probably not even a third star really on a good team, because if you were, the Lakers would have kept you.”
.@SDinwiddie_25 speaks on the Twitter beef with Kyle Kuzma 🗣️
“What’s that thing Draymond just said… Insecurity is loud?” 🍿
Spencer Dinwiddie Sounds off on Time With Wizards
In 2021, Dinwiddie got sent from the Nets to the Wizards in a sign and trade on a 3-year / $62 million deal that paired him with All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal. But that experiment failed, and Dinwiddie was traded to the Dallas Mavericks just seven months later before ultimately landing back with the Nets when they traded Kyrie Irving in February.
In a recent interview with NBA analyst Taylor Rooks, Dinwiddie says that identity issues were a big reason why the situation with the Wizards never worked out for him.
“Trying to figure out an identity going in several different directions, right? We had Rui [Hachimura] coming back from what he was struggling with. Deni [Avdija] was supposed to be like the second coming of Luka [Doncic]. You got Brad, who’s obviously the Max guy. You got the Lakers guys coming over who want to establish themselves independently of LeBron, people playing for deals and all that stuff,” Dinwiddie said.
“And it was a situation where I was just saying, what are we doing? Remember, I’m coming off an injury, and I just signed a deal, a rather large one, right? So technically speaking, I didn’t even need to play, nor was I going to need to play for a deal, nor did I need money or any of that stuff, right? So, it was like, can we just lay out what the actual plan is?”
Spencer Dinwiddie Optimistic About Nets Future
One of the most fun things about trades is that they are a gamble, and, in the end, it is either hit or miss. The Mavericks gave up a lot to acquire Kyrie Irving at the trade deadline, and in the end, it backfired on them as the franchise did not even qualify for the play-in tournament this season. Brooklyn, on the other hand, is the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and hoarded a wealth of draft picks at the deadline. Dinwiddie believes the franchise’s future is bright.
“For the nets, I think, you know, with the moves that they made, they kind of got to restructure their roster more in line with probably who the front office and you know, ownership group kind of want to have which I think has been well documented,” Dinwiddie said to Rooks.
“And they also got a plethora of picks which you know, if they want to stay in win-now mode, they’ve got a lot of guys that are in that kind of age range and caliber, and then, you take the picks you go try to find THE guy, and you know, you go from there.”