Spencer Dinwiddie went off for 41 points on Thursday night in the Brooklyn Nets’ 118-105 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. The loss will be disappointing for the Nets, who struggled to contain a red hot Patty Mills, who finished with 27 points for San Antonio.
But on a night when the rest of the Nets seemed unable to get it going, Dinwiddie showed he could score — in volume — when his team needs him.
Which makes Kyrie Irving’s impending return all the more interesting.
Irving is still out with a right shoulder impingement he’s been dealing with, and will most likely not see the court for another week or two. When he returns, though, the Nets will have an interesting dilemma: How do they continue to get Dinwiddie his chances with the ball in Irving’s hands?
Let me be clear, there is no bad blood between these two players. At least not anything that I’ve heard.
Kyrie’s issues as a teammate are often overblown — a ton of people said he destroyed the Celtics last year, which was why it was a bit weird that all of the Celtics seemed totally delighted to see him when he came back to Boston this season. (I, too, have elaborate hugs and handshakes with my enemies.)
This isn’t anything personal. It’s more just a matter of who is going to run the offense. Dinwiddie is playing at a legitimately high level right now in the East — maybe not All-Star level, but close. Over his last ten games, he’s averaging 27-7-3, which culminated in last night’s 41-point explosion.
With Kyrie back, and Caris LeVert returning from injury? Dinwiddie is just not going to get the shots to put up those numbers.
That’s why you’ll certainly hear grumbling that the Nets should try and move Dinwiddie to a team where he can be a star, and a lead scorer.
But for the Nets, there’s no impetus for them to do anything — they’ve got Dinwiddie on a team-friendly contract (one he wasn’t able to convert into a digital currency, sadly) and, for them, they’ll most likely want to hold pat and see how things work out.
Can Dinwiddie, Irving, Caris LeVert, and eventually Kevin Durant co-exist? Maybe? Even if Dinwiddie turns into an off-the-bench scoring pop for the team, that’s a good thing to have!
But still, there are concerns here. When LeVert and Irving return to the court, those are two proven NBA scorers who will need to get their shots up, and that’s even before Durant comes back. It’s an old cliche, but there’s only one basketball.
Will Dinwiddie be happy transitioning back to someone who maybe gets ten attempts a game? Maybe. But we’ll have to see, and I’m also not sure that it’s in the Nets best interest to have him take on that role.
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