Brooklyn Nets: Time to extend Spencer Dinwiddie?

With the opportunity to extend Spencer Dinwiddie coming up on Dec. 8, the Brooklyn Nets have an interesting conundrum on their hands.

Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie can be signed to an extension, as opposed to hitting unrestricted free agency, starting on Dec 8. The question of whether to ink him this early, if at all, is now at the forefront of Nets discourse.

There is a network of costs and benefits associated with locking him up early on. But before delving into those objectives, we must consider whether Dinwiddie truly deserves an extension.

According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post, the Nets can only offer him up to a specified amount:

Having that ceiling helps the Nets quite a bit. It’s not crazy to think he’d get more per year in unrestricted waters. But should general manager Sean Marks even do it?

Upside

Roster stability is a huge plus for any team. Being able to tell a player that he or she earned the right to stay with the team is a huge morale boost.

And of all people on this team to retain, Dinwiddie fits the well from that emotional side. He has developed greatly in Brooklyn, one of the team’s greatest reclamation projects.

He was trusted into a central role last season due to injuries and he wasn’t sensational, but he was holding down the fort.

For a team scraping for any success it could get, that was more than they could ask for. Dinwiddie has come up clutch in several moments (twice against his former team and basically took the alpha role by force.

Dinwiddie once again finds himself in a similar role. After losing Caris LeVert to an ankle injury, the Nets needed an alpha once again. Again, Dinwiddie has been solid so far. He’s a quality player in today’s NBA.

Bringing back a quality player, who arguably wouldn’t be in the NBA if Brooklyn didn’t sign him, is a testament to continuity.

Additionally, the rest of the guard rotation is a huge question mark. D’Angelo Russell is a restricted free agent and Caris LeVert has an injury history with his own extension deadline coming next October. Dinwiddie would at least be a known quantity.

The contract is also solid if agreed upon at that four years, $47.5 million figure. It can be argued as an overpay if Dinwiddie stagnates, but not an egregious one — $12 million a year is a reasonable number that can be matched with expiring contracts, should the Nets no longer need him.

Locking him up also eliminates the risk of him demanding more on the open market. If the Nets really need him after this season, waiting for 29 other teams to bid on him could price them out of his market.

If nothing else, locking him up now acts as an insurance policy.

Costs

With every insurance policy comes the risk of superfluousness. If Russell takes another leap this season (which he really hasn’t yet, to be fair), and LeVert comes back healthy before season’s end, the same glut of guard talent could be a problem next season.

It’s also arguable that either of those things happening would marginalize Dinwiddie. LeVert’s return would be a lot easier to re-integrate with Dinwiddie than Russell’s fit, but it’s still not a clean one.

Also, just as Dinwiddie could get paid more on the open market, he could also be paid less than the four-year, $47.5 million deal. With Allen Crabbe‘s contract on the books, any more overpays are a huge financial liability.

It’s also evident that Dinwiddie is an inconsistent shooter and that continues to compromise his off-ball capabilities. He’s a good slasher, and his 37.1 percent 3-point shooting is markedly better than last season, but he typically pulls up instead of coming off the catch.

That makes his fit with another ball handler more difficult than some might think.

That would also be a problem if Brooklyn is realistically able to court a star free agent next summer. Star players need the ball and Dinwiddie could be stuck in his current sixth man role if he’s still here.

Russell’s situation is murky, but that also leaves room for upside. If he takes off between December and the end of the season, he might play himself back to Brooklyn.

Although Russell and Dinwiddie are somewhat sharing the spotlight now, Russell’s ceiling is much higher.

If DLo comes into his own as a scorer while maintaining his shooting efficiency (40.2 percent from 3 before the LeVert injury), he would far surpass Dinwiddie on the pecking order and share touches with LeVert.

Locking Dinwiddie up protects the Nets from glaring uncertainties, but it also creates an opportunity cost. Unless he takes it to another level before the end of the season, it looks like Dinwiddie will be free to gauge the market.