Deadspin fixes NBA free agency — Part 1: Point Guards

Combo guard, creative, and tech guy Spencer Dinwiddie was limited to just three games last season after partially tearing his right ACL.

In college, he tore his left ACL, which caused him to fall to the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft. But remember, he became a Most Improved Player of the Year finalist in 2018, where he also was among the NBA’s most clutch players despite the Nets winning 28 games. He was a borderline All-Star the following year and may have gotten in over D’Angelo Russell had he not injured his hand. And he took another leap in 2019-20, scoring a career-best 20.6 points per game while distributing 6.8 assists for the playoff-bound Nets.

His career scoring per-36 minutes has gone from 12 to 16 to 22 to 24 points in four seasons with Brooklyn prior to this past injury-shortened campaign that barely was. His assists went from five-to-eight to six-to-eight per-36 in that same time. The knock on him is his shooting, as he’s a career 41 percent shooter from the field and 32 percent from three. He did get to the foul line seven times per contest in 2019-20 and hit 78 percent. He’s a proven contributor who could get you 18 and 7 while providing floor generalship, leadership, and offensive creativity. He’s also one of the boldest guys in the league.

Who should try their hardest: The Lakers. They need an attacking guard who could fearlessly create offense for himself and others next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Also: Dinwiddie is a California kid who, if you’ve covered the Nets, perhaps always felt he’d end up in Los Angeles one day. Why not now?

Who probably will call, but shouldn’t: The Bulls. They did have him briefly in 2016 and waived him, which opened the door for the Nets to scoop him up. But next to Zach LaVine, with Coby White already there, a pass-first point guard would make more sense in the Chi… if you could even find one of those anymore.