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The Los Angeles Lakers are among the teams Spencer Dinwiddie is considering signing with after the Toronto Raptors waived him, according to SNY’s Ian Begley.
The feeling is mutual.
“The Lakers are known to have interest in Spencer Dinwiddie,” Action Network’s Matt Moore wrote on January 21. “[He] is likely to generate a market before the deadline.”
However, the Lakers have strong competition in the Dallas Mavericks, Dinwiddie’s former team.
The 30-year-old Dinwiddie was spotted watching the Mavericks game on Thursday, February 8, against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden a few hours after he was traded and subsequently waived.
The Los Angeles native sat behind Dallas’ bench and he was also seen chatting with Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban.
The Lakers stood pat at the trade deadline and saved up their lone draft capital for a bigger move in the offseason. But they are a little thin at their backcourt, especially after D’Angelo Russell (knee) joined Gabe Vincent (knee) on the sidelines of the Lakers’ 114-106 loss to defending champion Denver Nuggets with a knee injury.
Dinwiddie can come in and provide them with veteran experience and depth behind Russell and Austin Reaves.
The free-agent combo guard averaged 12.6 points, 6.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 48 games with the Brooklyn Nets this season. They traded Dinwiddie for former Lakers backup point guard Dennis Schroder and Thaddeus Young from Toronto.
Dinwiddie spent one-and-a-half season with the Mavericks before he was shipped to Brooklyn in the Kyrie Irving trade last year.
What Lakers Can Offer to Spencer Dinwiddie
The Lakers’ pitch to prospective buyout candidates, which include Dinwiddie, are aplenty.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin listed several of them on X, formerly Twitter, shortly after the trade deadline had passed on Thursday.
Among them are $1.5 million prorated salary, which trumps other teams’ projected maximum offer of $1 million. The Lakers saved some money by not giving Vincent their full midlevel exception in free agency. But the biggest of them all is the lure of playing at home where Dinwiddie grew up.
Dinwiddie starred at William Howard Taft High School in the Woodland Hills district, just 24 miles away from the Lakers’ Crypto.com arena. He was the John R. Wooden California High School Player of the Year in 2011 and won the city championship during his senior year.
Why Rob Pelinka Did Not Make Any Move
Lakers general manager and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka had an interesting analogy on why they stood pat the trade deadline.
“My job is always to look for ways to upgrade our roster, but you can’t buy a house that’s not for sale,” Pelinka told reporters via Lakers Nation. “The right move wasn’t there, and it’s a thoughtful and tricky calculus at times. … We didn’t want to shoot a small bullet now that would only lead to very marginal improvement at the expense of making a much bigger and more impactful movement potentially in June and July.”
Their top target — Atlanta Hawks Dejounte Murray — was too rich for their blood. Ultimately, the Hawks did not get the 2 first-round picks that they demanded and kept Murray in Atlanta for the remainder of the season.
In June’s NBA Draft, the Lakers will have access to 3 first-round picks, which they believe would be enough to get them a star.
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