Spencer Dinwiddie explains why he signed with Lakers after being traded by Nets, waived by Raptors [Full story link in comment]
NEW YORK – For Spencer Dinwiddie, signing with the Los Angeles Lakers offered a homecoming – and a challenge. The guard, a Los Angeles native, joins the Lakers for the NBA stretch run after the Nets traded him last week to the Toronto Raptors, who then waived him.
“You’re seeing a team that, when everything’s on the line, they can rise to a level that no other team can get to,” Dinwiddie told reporters of the Lakers. “They won the in-season tournament, have played big-time basketball the past several years.
Obviously, sometimes it’s hard to maintain that throughout a whole season, but at the end of the day, they know how to win.” Dinwiddie had returned last February for his second stint with the Nets through the blockbuster trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Dallas.
Dinwiddie started each of his 48 appearances with Brooklyn this season, averaging 12.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game but shooting only 39.1% from the field. The 30-year-old Dinwiddie’s long-term role in Brooklyn came into question after the Nets began the season with oft-injured three-time All-Star Ben Simmons as their primary point guard. The early-season emergence of 22-year-old Cam Thomas as the team’s go-to scorer at shooting guard further complicated Dinwiddie’s future.
Now, Dinwiddie hopes to give a midseason boost to a LeBron James-led Lakers team that, at 28-26 entering Tuesday, has underachieved following last year’s run to the Western Conference finals.
Playing with point guard Luka Doncic in Dallas, Dinwiddie excelled as a catch-and-shoot option, making 40.4% of his 3-point attempts in 76 games. That 3-point percentage plummeted with Nets to 28.6% last season and 32.0% in 2023-24, as Dinwiddie frequently had to create his own shots with Simmons injured.
Dinwiddie figures to return to that catch-and-shoot role with Los Angeles alongside the ball-dominant James, who averages 7.8 assists per game. The Mavericks (31-23) also showed interest in signing Dinwiddie after he was waived by the Raptors. “Let’s say you were a kid and you got your a– whupped by the bully,” Dinwiddie told reporters. “Dallas would’ve been like your momma being like, ‘It’s OK, baby.
Don’t worry about it.’ Lakers are like your dad. ‘Nah, you better go out there and fight until you win.’ … I just felt like that was what I needed at the time.” Dinwiddie, who starred at Los Angeles’ William Howard Taft Charter High School, said Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka being the first to call him during his free agency was a factor in his signing, as was seeing his son wear a custom jersey provided by the team.
“I was looking at ‘Dinwiddie 26′ and I was like, ‘Oh, damn.’ Like, ‘It’s real.’ For your son to be the reason you feel like it’s real, that was a really special moment,” Dinwiddie said. In Thursday’s trade with Toronto, the Nets (21-31) got back another veteran guard in Dennis Schroder, along with forward Thaddeus Young.
The Nets waived Young, whom ESPN reported Monday was set to sign with the Phoenix Suns. The Suns also feature Kevin Durant, whom the Nets traded to Phoenix last February, and Royce O’Neal, whom they sent there last week.
