FA: Spencer Dinwiddie Heads to DAL | 1 yr/vet min

[SleepingHero]

Coaches don't think this way, nor should they. 

Kidd is going to play the guy who gives his team the best chance of winning on any given night. The guy who has been in those circumstances, with the most experience, who won't be afraid to try to score, and who won't make mistakes. That guy will be Dinwiddie. 

There's a reason he kept trying to go to Hardaway in the playoffs - because the willingness to shoot, or to try to create offense in any way, is so, so, so much more important than we realize as fans. We chastise players for "bad shots" but in reality, that's what the coaches WANT. Guys who move the defense with confidence. (Now THAT is a separate discussion worth having). 

Dinwiddie is more confident and capable of taking "bad shots" than Hardaway could be on his most irrationally confident day. All Mavs fans know is that those shots went in during that one playoff stretch in '22. If I'm running this team, those minutes go to Hardy, period. I think this is a terrible mistake.

But I don't see the evidence that Kidd thinks this way. I agree he plays the guy who gives the team the best chance on any given night, but he's not looking for guys to absorb shots just because. 

THJ was given a shot because the Mavs were desperate for any sort of 3pt shooting. The team as a whole up until that point was shooting 22% from downtown. At that point Kidd was desperate for shot making, not shot taking. 

Dinwiddie's shot diet is questionable for sure, but if he's just hoisting up shots and missing them, then Kidd will absolutely move on and play Hardy. He's done that time and again. THJ's role was reduced to nothing post TDL. Exum's role was literally given to Hardy in the WCF because Hardy performed. We've seen this already. 

If you think Dinwiddie is as washed as you say he is, then Hardy is going to be played a ton. 

The only player I think Hardy has to be worried about is Grimes. I can easily see Grimes, not Dinwiddie, being such a good 6th man that it makes Hardy redundant.


(As an aside, isn't it so refreshing that we're discussing 15th men and their roles as being a "terrible mistake"??? Sheesh!)