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Spencer Diniwwide just played his best game in a Mavs jersey on Saturday as he helped a Luka Doncic-less Dallas side overcome the Sacramento Kings, 114-113. The 28-year-old dropped a season-high 36 points for the Mavericks as he continued to build on his momentum since his mid-season move from the Washington Wizards.
Dinwiddie joined the Mavs right at the deadline together with Davis Bertans, in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis. The 6-foot-5 combo guard struggled in his first couple of games for Dallas but he has since been making up for his rather sluggish start. Dinwiddie absolutely went off on Saturday night.
After his eye-popping performance, Dinwiddie could not help but talk about his time with the Wizards. The seven-year veteran got brutally honest about the months leading up to his exit from Washington. Prior to the trade, rumors leaked about how he was a bad teammate and how Dinwiddie was not liked within the Wizards locker room. He admitted that this affected him significantly:
“I think that's what hurt the most,” Dinwiddie said, via Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “I've never bashed Washington. I've never said an ill thing about the team. In fact, I thank the owner or chairman Ted [Leonsis], I thank Tommy Sheppard the GM and I thank [Bradley Beal] for those three kind of collectively deciding to give me my contract. They didn't have to pay somebody coming off an ACL.
“I'm appreciative of that, appreciative of my time there. … So to be bashed out on the way out the door hurt my feelings for sure. I think I'm human, of course.”
There's no denying that Dinwiddie was put in a bad light right before he was traded. He's not pinning the blame on the Wizards but at the same time, it's intriguing to think about how these rumors came to the surface in the first place.
Dinwiddie then opened up about the various role changes he was asked to do during his last season with the Wizards. According to him, he did everything he could to help the Wizards. Apparently, his efforts were not appreciated.
“I was fighting through for those guys,” said Dinwiddie.. “When the role changed and they wanted me to pass more — they felt like I was scoring a lot — I did that. I took my foot off the gas scoring-wise because that's what they felt — the team needed to get [Kyle Kuzma] and [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] and those guys shots. I said, ‘Look, I already got paid. This is about y'all trying to get the shots that y'all need, whatever.'
“So to get kind of kicked out the door was a wild feeling. I hadn't really experienced that before. But I still have nothing ill to say other than, yes, it hurt my feelings. But just like anything else, you become cautiously optimistic about your new situation. So far, it's a great fit. I love what they ask me to do here, which is get in the paint, and I'm going to continue to do that and continue to try to be of service.”
As Dinwiddie said, the worst part about all this is the fact that after all that he'd done for his team, the Wizards still decided to kick him out. To make matters worse, he was painted as a villain on his way out. Dinwiddie spent just half a season for Washington, but you really can't fault the guy for being hurt by all this.
You have to note, however, that this is just one side of the story. One can always twist this as Dinwiddie being bitter about his rather forgettable tenure with the Wizards. In this respect, it will be interesting to see if Washington chooses to respond to Dinwiddie's remarks here.
At the end of the day, the most important thing here is that Dinwiddie now appears to be in a much better place with the Mavs. It will probably take him some time before he's able to put this whole Wizards episode behind him, but that shouldn't stop him from being a major contributor for Dallas this season.
After Saturday's win, the Mavs are currently in fifth in the Western Conference and are now just two games behind the Utah Jazz in the loss column. Dinwiddie will need to keep his hot streak going especially if Doncic is to miss more time because of his current toe injury. There's no denying that Dinwiddie has a tremendous opportunity here to try and correct whatever issues he had with the Wizards.
