Spencer Dinwiddie Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Mavericks Notes: Roster, Kidd, Bullock, Doncic

May 21st, 2022 at 5:28pm CST by Arthur Hill

Letting a 19-point lead slip away Friday night was a reminder that the Mavericks still have work to do on their roster, writes Tim Cato of The Athletic. Dallas controlled much of Game 2 after building an early 26-10 lead, but couldn’t stop the Warriors when it mattered and now faces a 2-0 deficit in the Western Conference Finals.

Coach Jason Kidd only has six players that he can trust for significant minutes, Cato notes. Frank Ntilikina played just four minutes in Game 2 and didn’t score. Kidd tried Josh Green in the second half, but he missed the only shot he took in five minutes. Spencer Dinwiddie had four points and four turnovers as the Mavs’ bench was outscored by Golden State’s 36-13.

Having a healthy Tim Hardaway Jr. might ease the problem, but he’s still recovering after having foot surgery in February. Cato adds that Dallas needs another two-way wing who can match up with the Warriors’ collection of talent at that position, but the team doesn’t have a good option currently on the roster.

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Kidd believes his team helped Golden State by taking too many three-point shots, per Tim McMahon of ESPN. Friday’s game turned around in the third quarter as the Mavs scored just 13 points and shot 2-of-13 from long distance. “If you make [threes], that’s great, but you just have to understand, if you miss four in a row, you can’t take the fifth,” Kidd said. “You’ve got to make it. That just puts too much stress on yourself and on your team because, if you’re not getting stops on the other end, it turns into a blowout.”
The Warriors won by controlling the area near the basket on both ends of the court, according to Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. Dallas was outscored in the paint, 62-30, and was out-rebounded by a 43-30 margin. “Small, small-ball,” Kidd said. “When you say the overall playoffs, we did start off without Luka (Doncic), who is our best rebounder. But just being small. Sometimes, we’ll give up the rebound to take advantage of the offensive side. But when we do win, we rebound the ball, and we have to do a better job of that.”
Hardaway is the only player listed on the Mavs’ injury report for Game 3, tweets Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News, who adds that the stitches Reggie Bullock received in his right eyebrow and the lingering pain in Doncic’s right shoulder don’t appear to be serious concerns.

Southwest Notes: Pelicans Pick, Kidd, Rockets Draft, Dinwiddie

May 19th, 2022 at 9:06pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pelicans already have the look of perennial playoff contender and now they’re armed with the No. 8 pick. Who will they take? Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune takes a closer look at five potential targets, including Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin, Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan.

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The Mavericks were fined $50K by the league for bench decorum violations during Game 7 at Phoenix, which baffled coach Jason Kidd, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. “I know about the fine. Just trying to figure out what we did wrong to get the fine,’ he said. “Who complained? It was a blowout, so I don’t think the fans complained.”
Who will the Rockets target with the No. 3 pick? GM Rafael Stone is more concerned about what a player can’t do than what he can do, as he told Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “You can only play five guys, and the league is moving towards less positionality. It’s fine to have players with redundant strengths,” Stone said. “I do think it’s hard if they have redundant weaknesses. And players aren’t perfect, you know, so you’re definitely going to have players with weaknesses. I think that is something that you have to be careful with.”
One of the reasons why the Mavericks have reached the Western Conference Finals is the mid-season acquisition of guard Spencer Dinwiddie in the Kristaps Porzingis deal with Washington. Luka Doncic doesn’t downplay its significance, Marc J. Spears of Andscape writes. “He is amazing with the ball,” Dončić said. “He can do a lot of things. He’s a baller. That’s the best way to describe him. We’re glad to have him.”

Mavs Notes: Carlisle, Doncic, Dinwiddie, Harrison

May 16th, 2022 at 10:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Former Mavericks coach and current Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in a radio interview with 105.3 The FAN that Luka Doncic is destined for multiple Most Valuable Player awards (hat tip to Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News).

“I don’t have any question in my mind that there will be multiple MVPs in his future,” Carlisle said. “There will be championships in his future. He has a real, great, natural sense for the moment.”

We have more on the Mavs:

Doncic and the Mavericks have advanced their timetables, Tim Cato of The Athletic writes. Doncic has solidified his place as one of the league’s premier players with his playoff dominance and the Mavericks have become a true title contender in the process.
Spencer Dinwiddie benefited financially from the team advancing to the Western Conference Finals. He collected a $571,427 bonus, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets.
Mavs president of basketball operations and general manager Nico Harrison said it’s not time to get complacent after knocking out the top-seeded Suns from the playoffs, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News writes. “I can sit back and think about it in August. Heck, I want to keep playing,” Harrison said. “This is time to get greedy. It’s not time to be complacent and kind of look back at your accomplishments. This is the time to be focused. When you make it to this point, it’s time to take it to another level.”

Mavericks Notes: Game 7, Ntilikina, Kidd, Crowder

May 15th, 2022 at 11:01am CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks were relaxed at Saturday’s practice ahead of tonight’s Game 7 in Phoenix, writes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Coach Jason Kidd, who had plenty of experience with pivotal playoff games during his playing career, is urging his team to enjoy the opportunity and “stay in character” the way it has done all season.

In NBA history, road teams only have a 23.2% success rate in seventh games, and the challenge is particularly daunting for Dallas, which has lost all three games of the series in Phoenix and was destroyed by 30 points in Game 5. But the Mavs are optimistic after responding with a dominant performance of their own Thursday night.

“It’s an emotional lift for us,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “Obviously Phoenix was the best team in the league in the regular season. Obviously they’re at home, hostile environment. But you know, they also say a Game 7 typically goes to the best player and I believe we have that in this series. It’s going to be an exciting clash of styles.”

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Frank Ntilikina missed the Mavericks’ first-round series with Utah following a tonsillectomy, but he has been an important contributor against Phoenix, notes Chuck Carlton of The Dallas Morning News. Ntilikina was barely used by the Knicks in last year’s playoffs and had a disappointing four-year run in New York. He’s thankful to get a second chance with Dallas, which signed him in September without requiring him to work out. “Definitely it was stress and tension back then,” Ntilikina said, referring to his time with the Knicks. “But I stayed with it like every player should do and stayed confident in my work. Now I’m just glad to be here preparing for a Game 7, preparing for [Sunday].”
Kidd wasn’t with the Mavericks when they lost Game 7 to the Clippers last season, but he believes being in that environment will benefit them today, Carlton states in the same story. “Guys who participated in it understand what it means so you don’t have to explain what Game 7 means,” Kidd said. “It’s about us executing the game plan and giving us a chance.”
Suns forward Jae Crowder has strong memories of his first Game 7, which happened when he played for the Mavericks in 2014, Carlton adds. “Yeah, I had a lot of vets on my team. I had Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki,” Crowder said. “Those guys just talked about the atmosphere, how it was going to be enhanced, how much emotion was going to be in the game. Still, whatever they told me wasn’t enough. It didn’t put in what’s at stake and the emotions behind it. Obviously going through it helped me a lot.”

Mavs Notes: Doncic, Brunson, Dinwiddie, Scoring, Future

May 3rd, 2022 at 7:39pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Mavericks All-Star guard Luka Doncic turned in a masterful performance in Dallas’ 121-114 Game 1 loss to the Suns on Monday. Doncic scored 45 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and notched eight assists. However, Phoenix’s significant edge in athleticism could remain an issue going forward in the series for Dallas, opines Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.

Young, lengthy, springy players like Deandre Ayton, Cameron Johnson, Mikal Bridges and Devin Booker have already exposed the vulnerability of the Mavericks. Goodwill also cites the Mavs’ size disadvantage as the reason the team was out-rebounded 51-36 by Phoenix.

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Beyond Doncic’s big night, the team’s other two main ball-handling guards failed to rise to the occasion in Game 1, writes Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie scored a combined 21 points on 9-of-24 shooting from the floor. Townsend points out that Brunson averaged 27.8 PPG during the Mavericks’ 4-2 first-round victory against the Jazz, while Dinwiddie averaged 15.3 PPG in that series. Of course, as Townsend notes, both players received significantly more opportunities in part because the team played those first three contests with Doncic sidelined.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd is hoping that more Dallas players will be able to contribute to a more well-rounded scoring approach, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “[Doncic] got whatever he wanted, when you look at the shots in the paint, behind the arc, midrange, and then also I thought he got his teammates some great looks that we normally had made,” Kidd said. “We’ve just got to get someone to join the party.”
The Mavericks are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2011, when they won the NBA title. The team clearly is trending in the right direction, though Tim Cato of The Athletic still has some questions about the club’s core roster surrounding Doncic. Cato notes that the team offloaded center Kristaps Porzingis to the Wizards for future roster-building flexibility, not to improve the team’s current postseason chances — the latter outcome occurred anyway. Cato wonders about the efficacy of Brunson and Dinwiddie against the Suns’ swarming perimeter defense. Cato also expressed curiosity about how the team would defend the midrange-centric offense of the Suns, after clamping down against the Jazz in the first round.

Western Notes: Prince, Dinwiddie, Nance, Kings

April 29th, 2022 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Timberwolves forward Taurean Prince will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but he said on Friday that he “plans to return” to Minnesota for next season, as Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News relays (video link).

Prince told reporters that the strong camaraderie in the Wolves’ locker room is something he hasn’t experienced since college and praised head coach Chris Finch, comparing him to Mike Budenholzer, who coached Prince in Atlanta at the start of his NBA career. The 28-year-old added that he hopes Minnesota reciprocates his interest.

Prince averaged 7.3 PPG and 2.5 RPG on .454/.376/.756 shooting in 69 regular season games (17.1 MPG) during his first year in Minnesota. The Wolves will hold his Bird rights this summer, so they would be able to go over the cap to re-sign him without using any of their mid-level exception.

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie earned a $100K bonus on Thursday when Dallas beat Utah to advance to the second round, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Dinwiddie would receive another $571K if the Mavs get past Phoenix and earn a spot in the Western Conference Finals.
Having played for four teams and eight head coaches since entering the NBA in 2015, Pelicans forward Larry Nance Jr. would welcome some stability and said on Friday that he’d like to make New Orleans his permanent home, tweets William Guillory of The Athletic. Nance has just one year left on his current contract, but will be extension-eligible this offseason.
With Monte McNair believed to be entering the final guaranteed year of his contract with the Kings, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee wonders if the general manager will feel pressure to hire a veteran head coach such as Mike D’Antoni instead of a candidate without any head coaching experience.

Injury Updates: Doncic, Allen, Kennard, Collins, Niang

April 12th, 2022 at 1:31pm CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks put out a press release on Tuesday formally confirming that Luka Doncic is dealing with a strained left calf and announcing there’s no timetable for his return.

Dallas won’t have to officially list Doncic on the injury report until Friday, so the club will likely continue to be cagey about his availability for Game 1 vs. Utah. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd declined to offer any specifics on Tuesday, offering coy responses about Doncic’s ability to practice and the possibility that he’ll play on Saturday, tweets Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.

For what it’s worth, Kidd said multiple times that Doncic is “in great spirits,” while Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie offered a positive assessment of his teammate’s status (Twitter link via Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News): “He seemed solid to me. I mean, he don’t seem like a guy that’s going to miss too much time, if any.”

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:

The Cavaliers have officially listed Jarrett Allen (finger) as out for Tuesday’s play-in game vs. Brooklyn. An earlier report suggested there’s some hope that Allen would be able to play on Friday if Cleveland loses tonight.
Clippers sharpshooter Luke Kennard (hamstring) had been officially listed as questionable for Tuesday’s play-in game, but he didn’t make the trip to Minnesota, according to head coach Tyronn Lue (Twitter link via Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times).
Hawks big man John Collins, out since March 11 due to finger and foot injuries, played some 4-on-4 over the weekend, but head coach Nate McMillan isn’t sure whether he’ll be available for Wednesday’s play-in game vs. Charlotte, writes Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He’s been moving a lot more, and today was pretty much shooting. … We’ll see tomorrow,” McMillan said on Tuesday. “We’ll see how he feels after the weekend of play and what he went through today.”
After missing the last two games of the regular season with a knee issue, Sixers forward Georges Niang was able to practice on Tuesday and should be ready for Game 1 on Saturday, head coach Doc Rivers told reporters, including Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

Wizards Notes: Porzingis Trade, Satoransky, Special Someone

March 31st, 2022 at 12:51pm CST by Rory Maher

With the Wizards set to face the Mavericks on Friday night for the first time since the trade deadline, Tim Cato and Josh Robbins of The Athletic reassessed the deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis and a protected 2022 second-round pick to Washington in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.

Cato and Robbins agree that it was a win-win trade for the two teams. Porzingis’ time in Dallas had clearly run its course, but he has been productive with Washington, averaging 21.8 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 3.1 APG, and 1.6 BPG on .472/.305/.866 shooting in 13 games. He has been a willing passer and aggressive in the post, averaging 7.5 free throw attempts.

In addition to his production, Robbins writes that the Wizards are happy with Porzingis’ approach and toughness — the 7’3″ big man played through a couple of ankle sprains in recent games.

Dinwiddie, meanwhile, has thrived in a complementary role in Dallas, where his role is more clearly defined. Through 18 games with his new club, he is averaging 17.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 4.2 APG on .498/.386/.720 shooting.

Dinwiddie has been able to spot-up for threes and drive-and-kick as a secondary or tertiary ball-handler next to Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson. Bertans is still struggling to convert shots, but the team is holding out hope that might change over time.

Here’s more on the Wizards:

Porzingis doesn’t expect the game against the Mavs to be as wild as when he played the Knicks for the first time after being dealt to Dallas, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “I think it’s going to be a good game. It’s not going to be like my first game with Dallas in New York. That one was just crazy. This one is going to be a bit more just me competing against my old team. We’ll see,” he said.
Tomas Satoransky had a uniquely historic night on Wednesday, as Hughes relays in a separate story. Satoransky had a double-double without scoring a point, becoming just the third player in league history to accomplish the feat. The unselfish guard finished with 10 rebounds and 13 assists against just two turnovers, while shooting 0-of-2 from the field in the team’s 127-110 win over Orlando. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad, you know? I don’t know,” Satoransky joked. “I just let the game come to be a little bit. I was trying to be aggressive, but every time I would drive or was aggressive to the basket, it opened up space for my teammates. So, I tried to push the tempo from the beginning and I got some rebounds.” The 30-year-old veteran will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
The Wizards lack a “special someone” to set the team on the path to becoming a consistently winning franchise, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic. Washington definitely has some talented players, but no clear leader or catalyst.

Mavericks Notes: Dinwiddie, Brown, THJ, Luka

March 26th, 2022 at 9:04am CST by Rory Maher

Spencer Dinwiddie is making a major difference for the Mavericks and boosting their playoff prospects in the process, writes Chris Herring of Sports Illustrated.

Dinwiddie, who was acquired last month in the deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Washington, hit back-to-back game-winning threes at Boston and at Brooklyn earlier this month. The Mavs are 8-1 in clutch situations with Dinwiddie, and were just 12-15 in such situations prior to acquiring him, Herring writes.

Herring thinks there’s a case to be made that Dinwiddie might single-handedly offer Dallas its best opportunity to advance past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since Luka Doncic was drafted. Dinwiddie’s aggressive downhill drives force defenses to scramble, creating easier looks for teammates.

He’s also adept at getting to the free throw line (5.3 attempts per game with the Mavs), and does so at a higher rate per shot attempt than anyone on the team — including Doncic. Perhaps most importantly, Dallas has thrived with Dinwiddie on the court and Doncic off, outscoring opponents by 15.5 points per 100 possessions in 191 such minutes (prior to Friday’s loss to Minnesota).

As Herring details, the Mavs struggled mightily in the playoffs last season while Doncic was resting, but outscored the Clippers while he was on the court — Dinwiddie might be able to buoy those minutes if he can continue his strong play.

Here’s more on the Mavs:

Sterling Brown has entered the league’s health and safety protocols, the team’s PR department tweets. Brown tested positive for COVID-19, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link), and coach Jason Kidd said the team hopes there won’t be an outbreak. “That’s just part of the league. That’s just part of the world is COVID now, right? So it happens. We move forward. Next guy up,” said Kidd. “We just hope that it doesn’t spread throughout the team here late in the season. But we have to be prepared that something like this could happen going forward.”
Tim Hardaway Jr., who underwent foot surgery on February 1, has shed his walking boot and has been getting shots up prior to games, Townsend relays (via Twitter). Kidd said earlier this week that he doesn’t expect Hardaway to return for the playoffs, but the swingman previously stated that he hasn’t given up hope on a return this season. “I’ll say this: The further we go [in the playoffs], the better chance I have,” Hardaway told Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News. “That’s the answer I’ll give.”
Doncic was whistled for his 15th technical foul in Friday’s 116-95 loss at Minnesota, as Townsend of The Dallas Morning News tweets. If he gets another technical, Doncic will receive an automatic one-game suspension. However, that total will reset to zero when the playoffs roll around in a few weeks. At 45-29, the Mavs are currently the No. 5 seed in the West.

Mavs Notes: Dinwiddie, Chriss, Porzingis

March 17th, 2022 at 8:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Spencer Dinwiddie got a fresh start after being traded to the Mavericks and he’s appreciative of the opportunity, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes. Dinwiddie was part of the blockbuster deal with Washington that sent Kristaps Porzingis back to the Eastern Conference.

“People said I was a bad guy, people said I was washed, all that stuff after 30 games coming off an ACL, which sucks,” Dinwiddie said. “But (GM) Nico (Harrison) didn’t have to have that faith. He didn’t have to pull that trigger, especially with a player the caliber of Porzingis, an All-Star-caliber player.”

Dinwiddie made the game-winning 3-pointer against Brooklyn on Wednesday off a feed from Luka Doncic. Dinwiddie credited the team’s franchise player for making that decision.

“You can make people feel wanted, you can make them feel not wanted. You can trust them, not trust them. … He’s the superstar,” Dinwiddie said. “He could have done whatever he wanted.”

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Dinwiddie is in the first year of a three-year, $54MM contract but he hasn’t completely settled in following his midseason trade, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News notes. Dinwiddie has been staying in a variety of hotels and hasn’t looked for a home or signed a lease in Dallas. He wants to wait until the offseason to rent or buy a home to ensure he’s in the team’s plans beyond this season.
Backup big man Marquese Chriss has returned to practice and coach Jason Kidd is hopeful he will be available for one of the team’s games this weekend, MacMahon tweets. Chriss hasn’t played since February 10 due to knee soreness.
By dealing Porzingis, the Mavericks have plenty of flexibility to make a “home-run trade” for another star player over the next two years, according to The Athletic’s John Hollinger. The team will also have the ability to deal multiple first-round picks now that the obligations from the Porziņgis deal have either been fulfilled or will be in the near future, Hollinger adds.
In case you missed it, former exec Donnie Nelson has filed a lawsuit against the franchise.