The Washington Wizards look set to be active on the trade market, including some motivation to move guard Spencer Dinwiddie.
The Washington Wizards started this season nicely (10-3), but they’ve since faded to being outside the play-in tournament if the playoffs started today. A shakeup could be coming as the Feb. 10 trade deadline gets closer, with Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report reporting Domantas Sabonis is alongside Jerami Grant as a significant trade target.
Beyond that, the Wizards are reportedly shopping guard Spencer Dinwiddie.
Via Fischer:
Elsewhere in Washington, the Wizards have made Spencer Dinwiddie available for trade. It is difficult to imagine a wide market just a few months after the combo guard signed a three-year, $54 million contract. Team personnel across the league have noted Dinwiddie’s decline in production as he’s returned from a torn ACL that cost him all but three games in the 2020-21 season. “He needs the ball, he’s not good enough to have the ball, and he’s not a good shooter,” one Western Conference executive told B/R.
Wizards shopping Spencer Dinwiddie goes beyond his performance?
Dinwiddie is not shooting well this season–just 31.4 percent from beyond the arc and 38.3 percent from the floor overall. But in a broader look at the Clippers heading toward the trade deadline, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer added another element to the equation.
The Wizards want to move Dinwiddie because he looks like a shell of his former self and his teammates don’t want him there.
After a game last weekend, Dinwiddie suggested his attempt to be a vocal leader earlier this season “wasn’t necessarily welcomed.” Who that’s pointed at, teammates or coaches (or both) is not clear. But it’s definitely another indication Dinwiddie is not fitting in well with the Wizards after signing a three-year, $54 million deal last offseason.
Dinwiddie could boost his trade value by getting on a hot streak. Over his last four games entering Wednesday he has been in a dreadful funk though, combining to go just 8-for-41 from the floor (19.5 percent) and 4-for-24 from 3-point range. But if the Wizards want to move him, continuing to play him and hoping he snaps out of it is the only way to go.