Brooklyn Nets: Clearing up the crowded backcourt

Spencer Dinwiddie

Conversely, Dinwiddie is an arguable trade candidate because he is coming off a career year while also entering a contract year. Additionally, his fit with Russell has been less than stellar so far. It’s fair to say that a year of work together can fix that, but the two don’t have the most complementary of skill-sets.

Dinwiddie is more of a traditional pass-first point guard. His size allows him to defend wings, but offensively he’s best as the straight-up 1. Because Russell is a dual guard who operates best sliding between on and off-ball roles, he needs to be paired with another guard who can do the same. A career 38.7 percent shooter from the floor, Dinwiddie isn’t much of a factor off the ball. His need to dominate the ball compromises Russell and everyone else who can initiate in Kenny Atkinson’s multi-pronged attack.

He is one of the best bargains in the NBA based on his salary, but that also works against him in trade negotiations. Teams willing to trade for Dinwiddie are probably win-now teams, and those teams probably don’t have any cap space. Ditto for Brooklyn; the last of their room will go to Dwight Howard in the buyout.

This means that the incoming and outgoing salaries must be relatively close. At Dinwiddie’s salary of $1.6 million for 2018-19, finding players who will garner sufficient value is difficult. The only way to get the salaries to work is to not worry about them at all, and warrant draft capital for Dinwiddie.

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That’s where this gets fun. Although getting a draft pick for Dinwiddie seems like lateral movement, it’s quite a step up from how the Nets got him. If they can churn a former waiver-wire player into a first round draft pick, that’s a major big-picture win. As a team just starting to claw its way out from the depressing pits of a horrible rebuild, the big picture is the biggest factor in each move.

A trade like this is realistic, too. Contenders are more inclined to give up draft picks to fill a need, because they are expected to be lower in value. A late first round pick for Dinwiddie is good value for Brooklyn, because he might get overpaid by a desperate team next summer. 2019 figures to be an offseason of more spending than this summer because of some more impending cap relief.

Not too many teams need a pass-first point guard as of now, but the Phoenix Suns are shifting the gears to contention. They need a starting point guard because coach Igor Kokoshkov refuses to let Devin Booker take control of the offense.

Considering Phoenix’s willingness to deploy non-shooting 1s such as Elfrid Payton, Dinwiddie would be an upgrade. Elie Okobo, the Suns’ newly-drafted rookie, isn’t quite ready for starter’s minutes yet.

Not many teams are willing to offload a quality point guard while he is also on a cheap deal. Like the Suns did with Payton at the deadline last season, they can take a chance on Dinwiddie in a contract year. Dinwiddie is objectively better than Payton in most regards, plus the Suns would be getting him for an entire season as opposed to just three months, so he will likely cost more than Payton did.

That’s not a problem for Phoenix. They have assets to spare. Marquese Chriss has been discussed as a trade candidate, but like Dragan Bender, he is not very valuable right now. Trading him now would be selling low, which is disadvantageous from a business perspective.

Meanwhile, the Suns own the Milwaukee Bucks’ first-rounder for 2019. It is top-3 and Nos. 17-30 protected in 2019, top-7 protected in 2020, and unprotected in 2021. Because Giannis Antentokoumnpo is under contract through 2021, it would be hard to believe that the Bucks are not competitive during the next three seasons. This pick will probably be low, and the Suns can feel okay with offloading it to fill a need.

After all, the Suns are clearly on a path to winning basketball. Their prized No. 1 pick, Deandre Ayton, needs a good point guard to help him develop offensively. Dinwiddie can be that guy, while also taking the playmaking pressure off of Booker.

If Phoenix is not willing to pay anything close to that, then Brooklyn can take its moderate retooling in another direction.