Lakers looking to ‘unlock’ Spencer Dinwiddie

The guard, in clarifying recent comments about how his role with the Lakers is different, emphasizes he’s happy

Lakers guard Spencer Dinwiddie reacts after a 3-point shot during the second half against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, March 22, 2024, at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — As Spencer Dinwiddie was coming off his highest-scoring game since becoming a Laker last month in Friday’s 101-94 home win over the Philadelphia 76ers, he clarified comments he made last week.

“When I made the comments about roles and things like that, I know it kind of went viral, but I’m happy,” Dinwiddie said while sitting next to his locker at Crypto.com Arena.

“I understood coming here I was coming to a set-in-stone team. So I wasn’t making that comment from the standpoint of like being upset or anything like that.”

The comment Dinwiddie was referring to was when discussing how his role with the Lakers is different than the ones he’s played in the past with previous teams.

He compared his current role to the one Reggie Bullock had on the 2021-22 Dallas Mavericks, a team Dinwiddie finished the season with, that made that season’s Western Conference finals.

“Sometimes he’d go 0-for-3, sometimes he’s 3-for-3 from three or whatever,” Dinwiddie said of Bullock. “One of the things he talked about was just giving that effort.

When you talk about plus/minus, impacting and he helped us a lot.

He did the sacrificial things on that team that allowed Luka [Doncic] and myself and Jalen [Brunson] to have fun and basically just ISO everybody every play.

“Obviously, you do need the generational LeBron [James], Luka-level talent. But after that, you are going to need, whether it’s 4-through-15 or 3-through-15 to be like just locked in, focused, dedicated to the goal.

Dot connectors. Sacrificial in mindset and nature. And it doesn’t mean ‘not aggressive.’ It just means like, ‘Hey, you may have to swing-swing and give up one of your looks.’ You may only shoot four times.

But if you can continue to try to take charges, try to be in the right position, all of this stuff, you guys can go far.

It is technically foreign for me from what I’ve done in my career. Sometimes like I’m in a Reggie Bullock role getting graded on a Spencer scale sometimes.

Whereas on a Reggie Bullock scale – no shot, again, that’s my dog, like I said, he was great for us – I feel like I’m doing really well.

On a Spencer scale, obviously, I’m doing [expletive]. But like, I’m also not in that Spencer position either.”

To Dinwiddie’s point, even though his box score numbers haven’t been gaudy, which has coincided with a dip in usage and touches, his impact is present.

He’s second on the team in individual plus/minus per game (plus-4.6) since he played his first game as a Laker on Feb. 13.

Dinwiddie has impressed the most defensively, but also as someone who’ll keep the ball moving and pick his spots offensively.

But Friday’s victory saw Dinwiddie pick up the aggression as a scorer. His 11 points, eight field-goal attempts and six 3-pointers attempted were his most as a Laker.

“It’s just a matter of him learning his teammates, getting in a rhythm, learning where to be on the floor, and just being in attack mode,” coach Darvin Ham said. “And defensively, he’s a bigger guard, he’s strong, he moves his feet well, shows his hands, able to get on-ball blocks, which is extremely difficult to do in this league.

And we saw him do it time and time again.

“He’s just getting more and more comfortable. And again, everyone around him is encouraging him. Because we’re gonna need him. And he’s gonna be in the mix.”

Even though he didn’t elaborate on how he thinks the team can get more out of Dinwiddie offensively, Lakers star LeBron James said it’s something they need to unlock.

“He’s a difference-maker and we need to unlock that,” James said. “For sure, for him.”