Los Angeles Lakers: A Spencer Dinwiddie sign-and-trade would be awful

There are many different directions the Los Angeles Lakers could go this offseason. One potential name that has been connected to the Lakers is Spencer Dinwiddie, who reportedly wants to come home to Los Angeles, putting the Lakers and Clippers in the forefront.

Dinwiddie was included in our dream offseason that we put together earlier this offseason as a mid-level exception signing. It has become clear as more time has gone on that Dinwiddie is not going to be obtainable with the MLE.

Dinwiddie told Howard Beck of Sports Illustrated that it is going to take a five-year deal worth $125 million to keep him in Brooklyn. It may not take as much to sign with an LA team since he wants to play in LA, but this confirmed that he is asking for way too much and the Lakers should bow out. Let the Clippers have this one.

Why Spencer Dinwiddie is not worth it for the Los Angeles Lakers:

The Los Angeles Lakers physically cannot offer Dinwiddie more than an MLE contract and based on his comments, it is safe to conclude that he is going to ask for a bit more than the MLE.

But what about a sign-and-trade? That certainly is possible and we have been pounding the table about a Dennis Schroder sign-and-trade. Schroder is also asking for a lot of money, reportedly $100-120 million, and this seemingly works out perfectly on paper.

The Lakers can utilize the Bird Rights on Schroder with the Nets utilizing the Bird Rights on Dinwiddie to swap assets. This definitely does work financially based on the player demands and the Lakers probably would not have to add more than Schroder but it still would not be worth it for LA.

That is a massive overpay for Schroder, we can all agree on that. However, that is also a massive overpay for Spencer Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie would be a great value pick up for $10 million but you cannot justify paying him $25 million.

If Schroder was only asking for $10 million then it would make sense for the Lakers to re-sign him. He isn’t. Dinwiddie isn’t. The Lakers must stay away.

While Dinwiddie is arguably the better point guard, he does have some of the same problems that Schroder presented with the Lakers. First off, Dinwiddie is a really poor three-point shooter, which is less than ideal in today’s league where the three-point shot is so important.

Dinwiddie is a career 31.8% three-point shooter. That is even worse than Schroder, who was an unreliable shooter for the Lakers last season.

Dinwiddie also has a bit of the same ball-stopping problem that Schroder has. Again, you can tolerate it when you are paying him $10 million as you can stagger his minutes with LeBron and get 18 points per game as a third scorer. $25 million is way too expensive to have that role and he would start, and would stop the ball.

Dinwiddie’s best numbers have come on bad Brooklyn teams when his usage rate was very high, just like Schroder. And as I have said time and time again with Schroder, if Spencer Dinwiddie is getting near a 30% usage rate then you probably don’t have a very good basketball team.

The Los Angeles Lakers are too good for Dinwiddie to have that high of a usage rate. Just like Schroder, his production could dip without that big usage rate.

Dinwiddie is slightly more talented than Schroder but he is also coming off an ACL injury. The difference, especially with the injury, isn’t as high as fans may think.

And if it does not make sense for the Los Angeles Lakers to pay Dennis Schroder $20-25 million then it doesn’t make sense to pay Dinwiddie $20-25 million.