Dinwiddie ready to take the next step
Nothing has changed for Spencer Dinwiddie. He doesn’t view last year as a breakout season. He doesn’t see being named a finalist for the NBA’s Most Improved Player or winning the All-Star Skill Challenge as significant accomplishments. The progress, in his mind at least, was minimal.
“I was happy clearly, but I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do, or feel like I can do or anything I was capable of,” the Nets guard said Tuesday following practice. “It felt more like a half-step than a whole step. We still lost games. I still could’ve been more efficient offensively with my own shooting. And we didn’t make the playoffs.
“So, in my head as a player, there are all these milestones still to reach that I feel like we’re capable of, one individually and two as a unit, to do.”
When told of the “halfstep” remark, Kenny Atkinson grinned, thrilled to hear of his player’s drive.
“He called it that?” the coach asked. “I love it.”
Dinwiddie, 25, has high expectations for himself — his ultimate goal is to be the starting point guard on a championship team — so putting up quality numbers a year ago didn’t surprise him. He never lost belief in himself, despite the torn ACL that led to him falling out of the first round of the 2014 draft. He merely took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself, when lead guards Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell were shelved with injuries, and he averaged 12.6 points on 38 percent shooting, 6.6 assists and 3.2 rebounds in 80 games.
When asked if anything feels different at this point this year compared to last, he smiled and said: “Other than solidifying myself in [the media’s] mind, that’s really the only thing that I did.
“So I didn’t have the same type of, I guess, overjoyed sensation or shock and awe that other people had. At the end of the day, I was going to be a lottery pick before I got hurt for a reason. It’s not like I came into this thing thinking that, ‘Oh, I’m lucky to be here.’
“In a lot of ways people forgot about me. But that doesn’t mean I stopped believing in myself.”
He entered this season in a similar spot, however, potentially returning to the bench. Atkinson has yet to make any decisions about his starting lineup, and likes the possibility of playing Dinwiddie and Russell together at times, especially since, at 6-foot-6 and long, Dinwiddie can guard shooting guards and wings. But so far in training camp, Dinwiddie has been working with the second team. On Tuesday, he said that coming off the bench would be fine with him. When asked his goals for the season, he stated just one: Help the Nets win games in whatever role he is given.
“As long as I keep the focus where it needs to be, I think it will all fall into place,” he said. “If I were to come out here and say, like, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to get 20 [points] and 10 [assists],’ then the focus is not where it needs to be. Even if it means being the 15th man and being in a suit and cheering guys on and waving a towel, then that’s what it has to be.”
Atkinson has noticed a more confident player, but still not quite assertive enough. He frequently tells Dinwiddie “don’t defer —dominate.” That doesn’t necessarily mean take more shots and be more aggressive with the ball. It’s everything. It’s calling out plays, it’s taking charge when teammates are uncertain. Atkinson would like to see more of it from Dinwiddie.
“We’ve love to see a more confident, dominant personality,” Atkinson said.
Odds are strong that will happen. Dinwiddie, after all, doesn’t feel very accomplished yet. He has so much further to go.
“Like I said, it’s a halfstep,” he said.