Steve Nash may get asked about the possibility of adding new players to the Nets or moving on from others on Brooklyn’s roster, but he’s not going to say anything that would ruffle any feathers. So when Nash was asked about the possibility of Spencer Dinwiddie being traded, Brooklyn’s head coach expressed he’d like the guard to stay put.
“I’m heavy voting towards not trading Spencer, and I think the front office feels the same way,” Nash said. “It’s a unique situation ’cause he’s a free agent at the end of the year, but we all love him here — and we know it’s going to be very difficult to better than Spencer in a trade. We love him as a player. Bottom line. Full stop. Hope he’s here. We’ll worry about next year, next year. But right now, he’s an unbelievable piece for us and I hope he stays as long as we can possibly keep him — beyond this year.”
What Nash didn’t need to do, however, is praise Dinwiddie in the manner which he did.
“I love him, first of all,” Nash said. “He’s an outstanding basketball player. High IQ, he has a good feel for the game, he’s an outstanding athlete and he’s skilled. He’s a big point guard who can play off the ball, can defend multiple positions, can make plays for his teammates and he can score. He’s carried a heavy load, at times, for this team. He gives us a lot of versatility. There’s a lot of gaps around Kevin and Ky, and he can fill a number of them. Whether he’s creating plays for them or whether he’s spotting up, whether he’s taking on defensive assignments — it’s a joy to have a player like that, with that much talent and versatility, in our lineup.
“I love him and I just wanna try to maximize his usage. With Kevin and Ky, it diminishes the load in some ways. So then how can we tweak his versatility to be such a weapon an asset? Because he’s the type of player that’s capable of carrying the load. But at the same time, he’s also capable of carrying the load through versatility and being able to give us different looks and different options in multiple places. So I’m thrilled to have him, thrilled to coach him and I think he’s gonna play a big role for us.”
[jwplayer RIGZ4P5f]