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In March, as the trade deadline neared, reports linked the Miami Heat to Spencer Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie played just three games for the Brooklyn Nets this season; he suffered a partially torn ACL. Of course, the Heat ended up trading for Victor Oladipo instead — and he played only four games before getting injured for the season himself.
Three months later, the Heat are said to still be interested in the 28-year-old guard.
The #Heat are among the teams with interest in Spencer Dinwiddie this offseason, source tells @HoopAnalysisNet. Dinwiddie would add more firepower to Miami's back-court and would help divert attention from Jimmy Butler.
— Evan Massey (@massey_evan) June 23, 2021
Dinwiddie has a $12.3 million player option for the 2021-22 season. If he wants to secure a long-term contract, he will opt out and become a free agent. Oladipo will also be a free agent. Would the Heat give Dinwiddie a chance after the Oladipo experiment crashed and burned? Is Dinwiddie a fallback option if the Heat aren’t able to sign Kyle Lowry, who also was linked to Miami before the trade deadline?
The knock against Dinwiddie is his sub-par 3-point shooting. In the 2019-20 season, the Los Angeles native made just 31 percent of his 6.3 attempts from deep per game. On a team with two non-shooters playing a lot of minutes — Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo — having someone else who defenses will happily leave open shrinks the floor.
Lowry, by contrast, made 39.6 percent of his 7.2 3-point attempts this past season. Even Oladipo is a better 3-point shooter than Dinwiddie.
It’s always a risk to sign someone coming off an injury to a long-term contract. But if that player returns to pre-injury form, it’s a good move — especially because it will come at a lower cost, Kevin Durant’s 2019 free agency notwithstanding.
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