Spencer Dinwiddie has reportedly opted to undergo thumb surgery that could sideline him for up to six weeks, or into mid-March, according to experts.
The Nets point guard has been playing through torn ligaments in his right thumb for months that progressively have gotten worse. Though he could have continued to try to play through the pain, he might have become less effective, and the injury was going to require surgery at some point. Dinwiddie decided that point is now.
ESPN was the first to report Dinwiddie had chosen the surgical route after he met with a pair of New York-based hand specialists this week and both recommended surgery.
The Nets have declined to offer any timeline for Dinwiddie’s return. But Rockets center Clint Capela underwent a similar procedure and was quoted a return time of four-to-six weeks. Dr. Kevin Roenbeck, a hand specialist at the Ridgewood Orthopedic Group in New Jersey, told The Post the point guard should be back on the court in, at worst, a month-and-a-half.
“Assuming it’s a UCL, he can have it repaired or reconstructed,” Roenbeck said. “Assuming it’s a full tear … he can do it now and hope he’s back in six weeks.
“If it’s been two months, he’s probably looking at a reconstruction, not a repair. The ligament probably can’t get reattached [at this point]. He’s probably looking at reconstructive surgery anyway. I think his ship has sailed for repairing with his own ligament.”
Dinwiddie will benefit from recent advances in medical technology. A similar surgery just a few years ago may have been season-ending.
“The implants are much stronger than 10 years ago. It used to be a three-month thing. Now, like [Angels star] Mike Trout, it’s more like six weeks,” Roenbeck said. “If he has surgery now, he should be back within six weeks at the latest, so by early March or, at worst, mid-March.
“Ten years ago, they did it with an anchor but no reinforcing tape. You had to wait three months for the risk of reinjury to go down. Now you don’t have to.”
After winning the Skills Challenge at All-Star weekend last year and being a finalist for the Most Improved Player Award, Dinwiddie has emerged as a legitimate candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year Award.
The Nets locked up Dinwiddie to a three-year, $34 million extension last month rather than let him hit unrestricted free agency in July, and he has proven worth every penny. Dinwiddie is averaging a career-high 17.2 points and 5.0 assists off the bench, and has figured out how to coexist with starter D’Angelo Russell.
“It’s been bothering him, I think that’s fair to say,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He tweaked it and it hasn’t been 100 percent since.”
It’s unclear exactly when Dinwiddie suffered the injury. But earlier in the season — when eschewing a handshake for a pound — he acknowledged he was dealing with a thumb injury.
“It was about two months ago,” Atkinson admitted. “He tweaked it a little, and progressively it got worse. But I don’t think it was just one instance.”
The news is a tough blow for the already injury-riddled Nets. They are playing without combo guard Caris LeVert — who dislocated his foot in November — as well as shooting guards Allen Crabbe and Dzanan Musa. They are also without power forward Jared Dudley because of a hamstring injury.
Nevertheless, Brooklyn sits sixth in the Eastern Conference, with a conference-best six-game winning streak and a franchise-best tying 19-5 run since Dec. 7. The red-hot form of Russell and the five-game cushion they enjoy in the playoff race over the ninth-place Wizards and 10th-place Pistons buoy their hopes they can hold down the fort until Dinwiddie returns with at least a month left in the regular season.
Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks called up two-way player Theo Pinson from the G-League, and he had a team-high 19 points to lead the Nets to a 109-99 win over the archrival Knicks on Friday at Barclays Center. Third-string point guard Shabazz Napier shouldered much of Dinwiddie’s ballhandling duties and added 18 points.
