Despite plenty of trade rumors at midseason, the Los Angeles Lakers decided to make no trades ahead of this season’s trade deadline. The decision disappointed many fans who were hoping the team would make some sort of an upgrade to bolster its chances of going deep in the playoffs.
Instead, it added Spencer Dinwiddie from the buyout market. It was hoped the veteran guard, who is originally from the Southland, would give Los Angeles some scoring punch and another player who could attack downhill and create for his teammates.
But Dinwiddie made minimal impact offensively. Although he shot well from 3-point range at times, overall he made just 39.7% of his field-goal attempts and scored just 6.8 points a game during the regular season. He attempted just 7.5 shot attempts per 36 minutes with L.A., which was well below his career average of 13.5 attempts per 36 minutes.
In the Lakers’ first-round playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets, his playing time diminished, and he mustered just 3 points on 2.8 shot attempts a game and 35.7% field-goal shooting.
On the bright side, Dinwiddie had moments defensively, such as when he blocked a game-winning attempt by Damian Lillard to help the Lakers emerge victorious against the Milwaukee Bucks without LeBron James in March. He believes that at least in that regard, he helped out.
Via Lakers Nation:
“I think I came in, I feel like I was really selfless and bought into a role,” Dinwiddie said. “Tried to play defense to the best of my ability, tried to help out. Had some nice moments and we’ll see what the future holds.”
But he also expressed disappointment in how his time went overall with the Lakers.
“Career-wise, I can’t necessarily say there was benefit, per se. Obviously like we talked about, this wasn’t a role I normally play. I guess I got to show some defensive prowess but obviously a lot of people still expect me to do the other stuff. So we’ll see if that’s in the cards in free agency.
“Obviously we didn’t have the outcome we expected so I don’t know about professionally for now, but in general like I said, coming here in the manner that I did at the end of the year, stuff like that, it was all about buying into a role and trying to help this specific ball club accomplish whatever we could. I think I did that, for the most part.”
Some blame recently fired head coach Darvin Ham for Dinwiddie’s poor offensive production and believe Ham misused the guard. While Dinwiddie has historically shot a low percentage from the field, he did do well offensively during a short stint with the Dallas Mavericks while playing alongside Luka Doncic.
He said a few weeks ago he would love to stay with the Lakers for next season. However, if another team offers him more money, it may make sense for him to leave, at least financially.