Spencer Dinwiddie is now a long-term Net.
Less than a day after the best game of his life, Dinwiddie signed a three-year, $34 million contract extension with the Nets.
“@BrooklynNets I’m home,” Dinwiddie posted on Instagram on Thursday, with a hands emoji. He followed with another post, on Twitter, saying “The journey is just beginning. I’m thankful that @brooklynnets believe in me enough to give me a home. #AudienceOfOne.”
Dinwiddie has a player option in the third year of the deal, according to ESPN. He will make $10.6 million next season, $11.4 million in 2020-21 and $12.3 million in the final year of the contract. At 25 years old, the length of the deal would let the 6-foot-6 guard go back out into the free-agent market at 28, right in the middle of his prime.
The new contract is a huge raise from the $1.6 million he’ll make this season (a deal former Raptors coach Dwane Casey called the best bargain in the NBA), but it’s still a case of Dinwiddie taking less to stay in Brooklyn, as Joe Harris did last summer.
Dinwiddie was plucked out of the G-League by general manager Sean Marks two years ago and became an finalist for the NBA Most Improved Player Award last season, playing for coach Kenny Atkinson and working with the Nets’ player development team.
Dinwiddie became eligible for a four-year, $47.5 million extension on Saturday, and he had made it clear he would be willing to sign one if offered. While his cheap cap hold and the fact the Nets held his Bird Rights made it tempting for the team to hammer out a deal late in free agency, it ultimately proved too great a risk.
Multiple NBA sources told The Post that Dinwiddie could make far more from a point guard-starved team (such as the Suns or Magic) in unrestricted free agency and expressed surprise the Nets hadn’t locked him up yet. After he poured in a career-high 39 points in Wednesday’s win at Philadelphia, his leverage only got better.
“I’ll let Ray [agent Raymond Brothers] and Sean talk about contract,” Dinwiddie said Wednesday. “I’m just out here trying to help the Nets win games.”
Dinwiddie has done that, averaging 16.9 points on 47.4 percent shooting and 36.8 percent from 3-point range, all career-highs. He’s 16th in the NBA in offensive real plus/minus, and fifth in the Eastern Conference behind Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry and Eric Bledsoe. And he has done all that coming off the bench and logging just 28.7 minutes per game.
With Caris LeVert sidelined with a foot injury, Dinwiddie more and more has stepped into the role of closer for the Nets.
“It’s just so evident, you can’t take him out and he’s playing great basketball,” Atkinson said. “Obviously, he’s our engine right now, especially in the second half.”
The signing cuts $10.6 million out of the Nets’ cap space for this summer, but they should still have more than $50 million to spend (not enough to sign two max players). They have to make a decision on starting point guard D’Angelo Russell, a potential restricted free agent. But after developing Dinwiddie into a solid player, now they’ll enjoy the fruits of that labor.
