DAMN-WIDDIE: All Things Spencer | "Mr Game Seven" (30 pts, 11-15 FGs, +29)

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Agreed.  He does not feel like somebody that will get hunted.  Right now Brunson feels like the potential target in our likely finishing lineup.

Brunson absolutely is the one that will get picked on, for obvious reasons. I like his game though. Dude is fearless for his size.

[Branduil]

Now that I think about it, Dinwiddie is basically giving us what I thought we could get from Reggie Jackson if we'd gone after him. In fact, SD's stats in Dallas so far are eerily similar to the numbers Reggie Jackson put up in last year's playoffs. 18 ppg, 3 reb, 4 ast, about 50/40 shooting. I'm glad we were able to get that kind of player because now we're seeing how much that helps Luka, and hopefully that will hold up in the playoffs.

[KillerLeft]

Now that I think about it, Dinwiddie is basically giving us what I thought we could get from Reggie Jackson if we'd gone after him. In fact, SD's stats in Dallas so far are eerily similar to the numbers Reggie Jackson put up in last year's playoffs. 18 ppg, 3 reb, 4 ast, about 50/40 shooting. I'm glad we were able to get that kind of player because now we're seeing how much that helps Luka, and hopefully that will hold up in the playoffs.

I haven't compared, but I bet Dinwiddie gets to the free throw line way, way more than Jackson. I'm pretty shocked that he's shooting the 3-ball so well, however. I keep expecting that part of his game to fall off, but so far he has been on fire.

[SleepingHero]

I haven't compared, but I bet Dinwiddie gets to the free throw line way, way more than Jackson. I'm pretty shocked that he's shooting the 3-ball so well, however. I keep expecting that part of his game to fall off, but so far he has been on fire.

Dinwiddie's free throw rate (number of free throw's per FG attempts) since he got to Dallas has been .453 which is quite high (for context James Harden in HOU hovered around .550+ and was .460 in BRK).

Reggie Jackson's has been .134 this season and .203 for his career. 

So your intuition is spot on that Dinwiddie gets to the line much more (his career is .391) You can also just see this from attempts. Dinwiddie hovers around 5 a game while Jackson is around 2.

[KillerLeft]

Yeah, I feel silly for ever wondering if Dinwiddie was a fit here. Silly. 

I was dead set against Dinwiddie or DeRozan because I thought both would have trouble playing off of Luka when they didn't have the ball. DeRozan probably would've been fine, too, but even more to the point, I thought DeRozan would've been bad here and Dinwiddie would've been worse. If Dinwiddie keeps shooting the 3-ball as he has been, not only is a fit, but an even better fit than DeRozan, imho. 

Luka's numbers are (fairly significantly) worse since they teamed up, way more so than Brunson's, who we were more worried about. But, the team's offense seems generally better and more reliable. Luka seems way more comfortable playing with Dinwiddie than he did with Porzingis, for example, and in time I expect the pairing to look even better.

Just goes to show how ill-equipped for the job Delon Wright and Josh Richardson were. We used those experiments to make judgement calls on player types and their fits, but it turns out those guys just weren't good enough to do the job.

[Kammrath]

Yeah, I feel silly for ever wondering if Dinwiddie was a fit here. Silly.

Honestly I don't think you should. Any ball dominant guard coming in to be alongside Luka should give all of us pause. We have seen too many players not mesh well with Luka and get jealous of his ball dominance. 

I have to give Cuban credit with SD in large part because he KNEW the personality. SD's personality is what makes the fit with Luka and the team great. He can be an Alpha when needed, but absolutely defers to Luka with not a hint of jealousy. Perfect personality fit from what I have seen.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Yeah, I feel silly for ever wondering if Dinwiddie was a fit here. Silly. 

I was dead set against Dinwiddie or DeRozan because I thought both would have trouble playing off of Luka when they didn't have the ball. DeRozan probably would've been fine, too, but even more to the point, I thought DeRozan would've been bad here and Dinwiddie would've been worse. If Dinwiddie keeps shooting the 3-ball as he has been, not only is a fit, but an even better fit than DeRozan, imho. 

Luka's numbers are (fairly significantly) worse since they teamed up, way more so than Brunson's, who we were more worried about. But, the team's offense seems generally better and more reliable. Luka seems way more comfortable playing with Dinwiddie than he did with Porzingis, for example, and in time I expect the pairing to look even better.

Just goes to show how ill-equipped for the job Delon Wright and Josh Richardson were. We used those experiments to make judgement calls on player types and their fits, but it turns out those guys just weren't good enough to do the job.

Have to disagree with you about Dinwiddie being a better fit than DeRozan. DeRozan is the far better shooter and scorer, and his off-the-charts mid-range game would really help Luka as well as his knack for drawing fouls and getting to the FT line 8-10 times a game.   Dinwiddie has played well, but I suspect he'll fall back to the mean.  You just don't know when.  I'd take DeMar over him in a heartbeat.

[Hypermav]

I really like Dinwiddie's personality, I think that is part of the success.  DDR does make 10 millionish more than SD.  So he should be a bit better overall anyway.

[KillerLeft]

I'd take DeMar over him in a heartbeat.

As a player, so would I. As a fit with Luka, it's hard to imagine DeRozan being better than this. For me, at least.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

As a player, so would I. As a fit with Luka, it's hard to imagine DeRozan being better than this. For me, at least.

I mean he's having a career year. So he'll never be better, agreed. I just don't see how you can say he wouldn't fit with Luka. He would easily be the 2nd best player on the team, and a far better fit than KP was. You could stagger their minutes where DD would be on the floor when Luka rests and vice versa and always have a scoring threat on the floor. That's just me.  It's all water under the dike though. DD is in Chicago.

[KillerLeft]

I just don't see how you can say he wouldn't fit with Luka. He would easily be the 2nd best player on the team, and a far better fit than KP was. You could stagger their minutes where DD would be on the floor when Luka rests and vice versa and always have a scoring threat on the floor.

All of that is true, and it's all true of Dinwiddie. The difference is that Dinwiddie, previously unbeknownst to me, can also catch and shoot the 3-ball.

[ItsGoTime]

With as well as SD has been playing. If we were to resign JB, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kidd didn’t try out SD in the starting lineup with JB off the bench next year.

[KillerLeft]

With as well as SD has been playing. If we were to resign JB, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kidd didn’t try out SD in the starting lineup with JB off the bench next year.

Either way, as far as I'm concerned. So stoked about the fit.

[ItsGoTime]

Either way, as far as I'm concerned. So stoked about the fit.

For sure so far that fit is pretty much perfect on offense. His confidence has gone up as much as Maxi’s has gone down. Hope he doesn’t give it back to him (speaking strictly of 3%) and Maxi just finds his own.


I think the biggest example of his confidence is his 4th quarter play. That has almost strictly been Luka’s, but SD is not deferring to him or the other team’s defense.

[ThisIStheYear]

It’s time to start Dinwiddie.  Reggie to the bench.

[Branduil]

It’s time to start Dinwiddie.  Reggie to the bench.

I'm not sure that's the solution. The problem with Dinwiddie starting is it means we have no bench offense whatsoever. Bullock just needs to start shooting better, as does Maxi.

[Mavs2021]

Dinwiddie's free throw rate (number of free throw's per FG attempts) since he got to Dallas has been .453 which is

probably also his FT percentage.

[mvossman]

Have to disagree with you about Dinwiddie being a better fit than DeRozan. DeRozan is the far better shooter and scorer, and his off-the-charts mid-range game would really help Luka as well as his knack for drawing fouls and getting to the FT line 8-10 times a game.   Dinwiddie has played well, but I suspect he'll fall back to the mean.  You just don't know when.  I'd take DeMar over him in a heartbeat.

DeRozan is definitely a better player than Din, but he also cost 10 mil more in free agency.  If you are talking about pure fit, Din a better catch and shoot 3 point shooter and a better defender and you could make the argument that he is a better fit when taking cost into perspective.  If we had signed Din to cap space, we would have had enough for another starter level player (I believe over 15 mil).  DeRozan would have left us with less than the MLE.  Din is having a good run, but DeRozan is basically having a career year too.  He is also 3+ years older.

Either way, I think we should have signed one of them over THJ, especially given our FO made it clear that playmaking with size was our top priority.  Maybe we tried and got no interest (due to not wanting to play with Luka), but I don't remember any noise about either of them at all.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

DeRozan is definitely a better player than Din, but he also cost 10 mil more in free agency.  If you are talking about pure fit, Din a better catch and shoot 3 point shooter and a better defender and you could make the argument that he is a better fit when taking cost into perspective.  If we had signed Din to cap space, we would have had enough for another starter level player (I believe over 15 mil).  DeRozan would have left us with less than the MLE.  Din is having a good run, but DeRozan is basically having a career year too.  He is also 3+ years older.

Either way, I think we should have signed one of them over THJ, especially given our FO made it clear that playmaking with size was our top priority.  Maybe we tried and got no interest (due to not wanting to play with Luka), but I don't remember any noise about either of them at all.

That's fair enough. Especially the economics of it.

[MFFL]

Anyone else think Dinwiddie looks like an extra for "Winning Time"? He has the same throwback facial hair