Brooklyn Nets: 2017-18 player grades for Spencer Dinwiddie

Strengths

The main attributes of Dinwiddie’s game come from his immensely high I.Q., both in basketball and in the real world (he scored a 1400 on the SATs).

Dinwiddie’s 12.6 points and 6.6 assists per game (to only 1.6 turnovers) are quite impressive when considering where he has come from. As I’ve previously delved into, Dinwiddie rose to respectability and took the Nets with him.

On a team that uses so many possessions to jack up 3-pointers, Dinwiddie’s ball security (4.1 assist-to-turnover ration, ranking second in the NBA) was a warm welcome. With him on the court, the team scored 4.8 more points per 100 possessions than when he sat. Quite simply, the offense hummed when he was in the game.

Dinwiddie is a basketball intellectual, and it shows on the court. He knows the playbook as well as coach Atkinson, and has allegedly gone out of his way to question play calls. He knows the game like an elite player would. Opportunity, combined with Atkinson’s creative license, allowed Dinwiddie to elevate his game.

Dinwiddie has even taken some turns as the alpha, getting hot in crunch time to secure several wins for the Nets. These chances only came because DLo and Lin were hurt, but Dinwiddie and the team were better as a result.