3 ways a Spencer Dinwiddie trade could help the Brooklyn Nets

2. Make more room

The Brooklyn Nets currently have a little under $24 million worth of guaranteed contracts on the books for the 2019-20 NBA season, giving them space for two max slots, and then some, to operate with in the coming offseason.

Now, this is assuming they renounce qualifying offers to both D’Angelo Russell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and decline Treveon Graham’s team option, all of which seem unlikely. Factoring those in brings them to roughly $38.3 million, where they could almost assuredly still fit in two max contracts on top of everything else. The one variable that has monkey wrench potential is Allen Crabbe’s player option for 2019-20 worth $18.5 million.

It is hard to believe Crabbe would decline that option, as finding equivalent money in the open market would be all but impossible. If Brooklyn wanted to make sure it retained as much cap flexibility as possible in July, they could seek to package Spencer Dinwiddie and Allen Crabbe into a trade to unload that potential player option.

The Sacramento Kings are the only team right now that could straight up take on Crabbe’s $19.3 million, but the Nets could have plenty of options by way of taking back expiring contracts. The Chicago Bulls’ Robin Lopez, the Orlando Magic’s Terrence Ross, the Dallas Mavericks’ Wesley Matthews, or even the Kings’ Iman Shumpert are all expiring contracts that would allow Brooklyn to flip Crabbe and Dinwiddie into assured cap space this summer.