Spencer Dinwiddie joins Hornets on one-year deal, sources say
Free agent guard Spencer Dinwiddie has agreed to a one-year deal with the Charlotte Hornets, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Wednesday. The 32-year-old is heading into his 12th NBA season.
Dinwiddie brings a solid track record to Charlotte. Over 621 career games (345 as a starter) with five different teams, he’s averaged 13 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game. He typically plays about 28 minutes per contest, shooting 41.4% overall and 33.3% from three-point range.
His journey through the NBA has been quite the ride.
The Detroit Pistons picked him 38th overall in the 2014 draft after his college career at Colorado. After two seasons, they shipped him off to Brooklyn.
Since then, the 6-foot-5 guard has bounced around the league, playing for the Wizards, Lakers, and Mavericks. He was particularly valuable as the sixth man on Dallas’ 2022 Western Conference finals team.
Dinwiddie’s been part of some major trades too. He landed in Dallas through the Kristaps Porzingis deal in 2022, then found himself back in Brooklyn a year later when the Mavs traded for Kyrie Irving.
One of Dinwiddie’s best qualities? Durability.
Last season was a nightmare for Dallas on the injury front. The team ranked in the top five in games missed, with players sitting out a combined 363 games – almost double from the previous year.
The Mavs had to use 47 different starting lineups, the fourth most by any team since the league started tracking starters in 1970-71.
Through all that chaos, Dinwiddie was a steady presence. He played in 79 games (starting 30), averaging 11 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. Only Dinwiddie, Klay Thompson, and Naji Marshall managed to appear in 60+ games for Dallas.
The team’s season went off the rails when they traded superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, who was injured when acquired and got hurt again in his debut. Then Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending torn ACL.
All these injuries led to Dallas finishing with a disappointing 39-43 record and losing to Memphis in the play-in tournament.
Now Dinwiddie heads to Charlotte, joining a young Hornets team that struggled mightily last season, going just 19-63 and missing the playoffs for the ninth straight year.
He’ll have to fight for minutes in a packed backcourt. The Hornets already have star point guard LaMelo Ball, plus Tre Mann, Nick Smith Jr., and Collin Sexton.
Charlotte’s roster now stands at 20 players, including all four rookies, the non-guaranteed contracts of Moussa Diabate, Josh Okogie, and Daquan Jeffries, plus two-way guard KJ Simpson.
