Brooklyn Nets: 3 best things from the season so far
By Luke Duffy
3. The play of Spencer Dinwiddie
With Irving missing so much time and Durant out of action altogether, there was always going to be an opportunity for somebody to step into that void and score more points. That person was Spencer Dinwiddie, who even before the arrival of Irving and Durant was one of the key players on the roster.
In 64 games he put up 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game, which were both not only career-highs but All-Star level numbers. His Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 17.9, while not a huge amount better than the league average of 15, was also the best number of his career so far too. Dinwiddie did a lot of things right for the Nets, even if the 30.8 percent he shot from deep on a career-high 6.4 attempts per contest was not one of them.
History has shown us that you need three stars to be a true contender in the league. In Dinwiddie, the Nets appear to have that third guy. Alongside Irving, they would make a fearsome backcourt, offensively at least. Dinwiddie is more like Irving, and indeed Durant than you might think too, as we have seen especially since the season came to a halt.
https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets/status/1266059158446575616
If anybody can co-exist with those guys, Dinwiddie appears to be the one to do it. Or else it will go the other way completely, and a messy end between player and team down the road is inevitable. Right now, though, his productivity on the court was a real boost for the Nets as they floated through the season, especially once it was clear Irving would be gone again for a long period.
He may not stick around beyond next season, but a deep postseason run while playing in a big market could do a lot to convince Dinwiddie that it wouldn’t get any better than Brooklyn, no matter what the fans think.