I’m Sure No One’s Doubting the Spencer Dinwiddie Trade Now
Dallas wouldn’t be in the Western Conference Finals if they hadn’t traded Porzingis
The Mavs couldn’t depend on Porzingis despite his numbers
All I could read when the trade for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans for Kristaps Porzingis and a second-round pick back in February was that the trade was an interesting and eye-opening one by Dallas. They were trading away a star, albeit an often injured one. He had missed about a third of the games he was eligible to play in since he arrived on the Mavericks back in 2019 to act as a star duo with Luka Dončić.
He seemed to be injured every time the Mavericks needed him and had to keep adjusting to him being out of the lineup and then work him back into the lineup. They just had to keep dealing with his uncertain health status and they definitely needed to do something about him. He was costing the team a lot of money with his contract and they could’ve gotten more value and better built the team around him.
They traded for two players that weren’t going to prove to be anywhere close to productive
The problem is they traded for two players who had been struggling and seemingly hard to move. The Mavericks took on both Bertans’ and Dinwiddie’s contracts. In 44 games with the Wizards before the trade this season, Dinwiddie is 28 years old and was averaging 30.2 minutes a game, but his efficiencies were subpar. He was shooting 37.6% from the field, and 31.0% from long-distance while averaging 12.6 points per game, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.7 assists. He had a plus/minus of -2.4. His player efficiency rating was 13.2.
It was unclear exactly how his role would change and evolve once he got to the Mavericks and how well he would play with Dončić. His numbers weren’t exactly blowing anyone away and there was no indication, especially given his age that anything would improve.
Also, he was joining a team that already had Jalen Brunson who had emerged in his fourth season in the league and averaged 31.0 minutes per game, 16.3 points per game, 4.8 assists, and 3.9 rebounds on 50.2% from the field, and 37.3% from long-distance in 79 games.
Dinwiddie did improve with the trade
Well, Dinwiddie did end up improving when he changed scenery. Sometimes, all a player needs is a change of scenery to increase their production. In his final 23 games, he averaged 28.3 minutes per game, 15.8 points per game, 3.9 assists, and 3.1 rebounds on 49.8% from the field, and a much improved 40.4% from long-distance. He had a plus/minus of +2.5 with a player efficiency rating of 19.0. He was a key factor in Dallas’ late postseason push as they finished strong.
Bertans’ numbers stayed about the same as he moved over to Dallas so he hasn’t factored in as much but the key here is the improvement in Dinwiddie’s game and his important contributions to the Mavericks to achieve a high seeding in the postseason. They finished 52–30, good enough for fourth place in the Western Conference.
The Mavericks were still an overlooked team
Despite the trio of Brunson, Dončić, and Dinwiddie going into the postseason, most experts and sportswriters were still overlooking them and thinking that they’d meet an early exit. I surely didn’t see them pushing the Phoenix Suns to seven games. Phoenix had the best regular-season record in the NBA with a 64–18 regular-season record, a franchise-best. This was a team that was favored to make it back to the NBA Finals, if not win it all this time.
Game 7 should’ve made everyone look twice at Dallas and Dinwiddie
Dallas dismantled them in the Game 7 on Sunday. The trio mentioned previously had combined to score 89 points, with Dinwiddie coming off the bench to score 30 points in 25 minutes on 11–15 shooting, 5–7 from long-distance, and 3–3 from the free-throw line. He had a plus/minus of +29. In the biggest game possible of the season for him, he combined with the Mavericks’ other stars to put on the performance of the postseason, in Phoenix, for that matter.
Luka finished with 35 points, and Jalen Brunson finished with 24 points. The duo of Dončić and Dinwiddie, in fact, made NBA history in this game. They became the first duo to score at least 30 points each in a Game 7 since Shaq and Kobe in 2002. That’s some pretty stellar company. They’re also the eighth overall pair to accomplish this feat in NBA history in a Game 7.
They’re now having to face an even tougher team in the Warriors
Now that they’ve endured a long battle and overcame the team with the best regular-season record in the Phoenix Suns, they’ll now have the test of going up against a team with depth in the backcourt as well in the Golden State Warriors. This will be a much more daunting challenge, I think, for the Mavericks, even though the Warriors finished with the third-best record in the Western Conference this season at 53–29, just one game ahead of Dallas.
They are the Warriors, after all, a team that has been to the Western Conference Finals six out of the last eight seasons and a team that had a dynasty as recently as 2018.
He’ll be valuable yet again against a tough backcourt featuring Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Gary Payton II, and Jordan Poole. Throw into the mix some of the other names on the Warriors in Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and the emergence of Kevon Looney, just to name a few, and the Warriors are about as complete of a team as the Mavericks have faced all postseason.
The trade definitely doesn’t look one-sided anymore
At least, at this point, I don’t think anybody is looking back at that February trade anymore and thinking that the Mavericks lost that end of the bargain with the Wizards. Dinwiddie has been so valuable to the team, especially off of the bench, that he’s become one of the biggest reasons they’re in the position they’re currently in now.
I’m excited to see what Dallas does next season as I’m sure that Dinwiddie has earned a spot in the rotation with his improved and excellent play. Regardless of how the Warriors series finishes out, I think we’ll be seeing more of Spencer Dinwiddie in a Mavericks uniform beyond this year.
Dinwiddie earned a spot and Dallas basketball is exciting again
Even though he’s 29 years old next season, he’s still going to be able to play at a heightened level over what he had been producing before he was on the Mavericks. The team is certainly grateful for acquiring him and Dallas’ front office looks like a genius moving Porzingis and getting something valuable in return for him, even if it didn’t initially look like it.
Dallas Mavericks basketball is definitely exciting again, for the first time in about a decade, when they won their last NBA championship in 2011. I’m not saying that’s where they’re destined for this year but that seven-game series win against Phoenix puts the rest of the league on notice that they can no longer be overlooked.
