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Due to questionable front office decisions and bad luck, the Brooklyn Nets are on a long, hard road to rebuilding. Their misfortunes, however, didn't get them any sympathy from the basketball gods, as they are now getting bit by the seemingly inescapable injury bug. Two of their key playmakers – D'Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin – have been out for the past three months, with the latter expected to miss the whole year and more.
As always with such situations, great opportunities are opened to other players – some respond well, some don't. In the Nets' case, they got a boost from the originally third-string guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who's been nothing short of surprising. The 6-foot-6 point guard is having success imposing his size in his match-ups, and he's putting up 14.9 points and 7.1 assists ever since taking over Russell's starting spot in mid-November.
The unexpected rise from his back-up now puts head coach Kenny Atkinson in some dilemma, since he'll need to fix the guard rotation once Russell returns in late January or February. Thankfully, though, it doesn't look like Atkinson will have to deal with a growing ego; Dinwiddie is still very aware of his role on the team.
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Here's what he told Brian Lewis of the New York Post:
“That’ll be a conversation when the time comes [on D'Angelo Russell's return]. But it was projected to be his and Jeremy Lin’s team at the start of the season, and you’d think it’ll be something similar when they come back,”
“It’s going to be fun whatever role they decide to give me. I welcome it. I’m happy to do it.”
It's very intriguing how the Nets' dynamic would shape up in the coming weeks, but a Spencer Dinwiddie-D'Angelo Russell tandem definitely sounds interesting. Dinwiddie can play inside and out, and he's also a willing facilitator, while ‘D-Lo' is a dangerous scoring punch, especially once he gets it going.
