Season Review: Spencer Dinwiddie

Despite starting off slow upon joining his hometown team following a buyout, Dinwiddie was quietly one of the better performing Lakers during his time with the club.

Welcome to our Lakers Season Review Series! For the next several weeks, we’ll be writing columns every weekday, breaking down the biggest questions we have about every player on the Lakers roster. Today, we take a look at Spencer Dinwiddie.

After the L.A. native Spencer Dinwiddie decided on a homecoming following a buyout by the Raptors, Laker fans embraced his grit and passion for the purple and gold.

In his introductory presser, Dinwiddie explained his decision thusly, “Let’s say you’re a kid and you get your a-- whupped by the bully. Dallas would have been like your mama, like, ‘It’s OK, baby.’ … Lakers are like your dad, ‘Nah, you better go out there and fight ‘til you win.’”

While the Lakers failed to achieve the victory Dinwiddie and fans of the franchise hoped for, Dinwiddie should be commended for his consistent fight each and every time he donned the franchise’s colors.

How was his season?

Despite backing up his tough talk with genuine effort, Dinwiddie’s initial offensive impact paled in comparison to his reputation, shooting only 30 percent on threes through his first 11 games with the team. Given his cold start, it was hard not to wonder if Dinwiddie was struggling to survive the added scrutiny of his new context.

Still, that stretch included a game-saving block of Damian Lillard and quickly turned around with Dinwiddie closing his regular season by shooting 44 percent from distance across his final 15 games.

Despite some residual disappointment from Spencer’s slow start, there is a case to be made that he was the Lakers guard best suited to support the extraction of maximum value from LeBron James and Anthony Davis on both ends of the court.

Some of his statistical success is inextricable from the Lakers’ increasingly focused offense down the stretch and the fact that he was spared from the Lakers’ dawdling through the doldrums of the season.

Nonetheless, Dinwiddie finished second to only LeBron in on-off rating as the Lakers performed 8.1 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor than when he sat. Further, the very best Lakers lineup featuring both LeBron and AD with at least 100 possessions included Dinwiddie at the point guard alongside Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura.

Dinwiddie’s North-South rim pressure and spot-up shooting bona fides gave the Lakers a slightly different look from their other guards. Further, his size (6’5”) and twitchiness enable more capable perimeter defense than either D’Angelo Russell or Reaves could muster.

Should the Lakers bring him back?

As is, the Lakers have a surplus of guards and a lack of depth in their frontcourt. In addition to Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis on guaranteed contracts, Russell has a player option and Max Christie will be a restricted free agent this summer.

While Dinwiddie might be anywhere from the second-to-fifth-best player on that list, there is an opportunity cost to making literally half of your 14-man roster backcourt players. Further, when players go down, which happened this season, you end up having to lean into smaller lineups than you might optimally like, undermining the best possible version of the team.

If the Lakers are able to shed some of the guards they currently have rostered, like D’Lo and JHS, in a consolidation trade for a forward, the Lakers should strongly consider re-signing Dinwiddie.

Will he return?

Even if the Lakers open up room for one more guard on their roster, it is unclear if they will have the funds available to retain Dinwiddie. Assuming the only money the Lakers pay out beyond their guaranteed salaries is LeBron’s opt-in number, they will already be above the salary cap and in need of an exception to retain Dinwiddie.

Since Dinwiddie is an unrestricted free agency without Bird rights this summer, the Lakers will be restricted to signing him to as much as the greater of 120 percent of his previous year’s salary ($1,865,596.80) or his applicable veteran minimum ($3,313,453) without using their mid-level exception. Considering the fact that he is coming off of a contract that made him more than $30 million over three seasons, Dinwiddie’s market might be somewhere between the taxpayer ($5,183,000) and full mid-level extension ($12,859,000).

Although the Lakers’ ability to commit to Dinwiddie will depend on their other moves, they may be able to hop for a hometown discount from a player who has already made $86,920,076 in his career.

Based on the quotes from his exit interview, it seems as though Dinwiddie is extremely open to a return. In that interview, he was direct, stating, “[I]f the Lakers want me back, I’d love to be back.”

Explaining his desire to remain in L.A., “Everything I said about this being a childhood dream and being able to play in my hometown, parents at every game, stuff like that, you couldn’t imagine anything better. Also playing alongside arguably the greatest player of all-time, right? There’s nothing really better than that.”

While Dinwiddie may be open to a return, only he knows exactly what price it will take to earn his services next season. The Lakers’ roster construction remains unclear for now, but the team should jump at the opportunity to retain Dinwiddie at the minimum from a value-per-dollar perspective, even if he would be the seventh guard on the roster.

You can follow Cooper on Twitter at @CooperHalpern.