Brooklyn Nets: A look at the guard rotation for next season

Point guard

For the majority of last season, Dinwiddie commandeered the offense at the 1-spot. He did an awesome job, and deserves a significant role for 2018-19. However, his off-ball skills are far from optimal offensively; even in a breakout year, he only converted on 32.6 percent of his 3-point looks.

It’s possible that this was due to his role as the head honcho; with few other creators around him until DLo returned, Dinwiddie was doing quite a lot of heavy lifting. It’s possible that he could be more efficient off the ball if he could specialize his touches, which will be a necessity next to Lin and Russell.

Even if Dinwiddie gets the 1 designation on paper, he must learn to execute without the ball. If he cannot improve his shooting efficiency, he will lose a large chunk of his minutes. Going into a contract year, Dinwiddie should be doing everything he can to round out his game anyway.

Personally, I believe Dinwiddie should still hold down the starting spot until he proves otherwise. He earned the playing time he received, and demoting him after a Most Improved Player-caliber season would feel unwarranted. Considering his skill-set, Dinwiddie will likely receive all his minutes lined up at the 1, which should round out to about 26 minutes. He averaged 28.8 minutes per game last season, so a slight cut to make room for more Lin minutes isn’t unfair.

As for the other 22 minutes, most of them should probably go to Russell. Not because he’s a better playmaker than Lin, but because his and Dinwiddie’s minutes should be staggered as much as possible. They were atrocious together last season, getting outscored by 10.0 points per 100 possessions in 352 minutes together.

It was a valiant effort to try and make them coexist (which I mistakenly thought would work), but until further notice, they should be kept apart as much as possible.