The Dallas Mavericks have already had a successful Offseason simply by capitalizing on their 1.8% chance to draft Cooper Flagg, but even after making their selection, there was still work to be done to improve the chances of making serious noise in the 2025-2026 campaign. Despite having arguably the best frontcourt in the NBA, their backcourt left something to be desired as Kyrie Irving works his way back from injury.
Aside from drafting Flagg, the Mavs wasted little time shoring up their guard rotation by signing D’Angelo Russell in free agency. The acquisition was terrific on a number of levels. It cost the Mavs nothing in terms of player or draft assets, it is a short-term commitment (2 years, with a player option in the second year), it is affordable (approximately $12 million) and it ably capitalizes on Kyrie Irving’s renegotiated contract which gave the Mavs some cap breathing room. From there, the Mavs quickly shifted their focus to Dante Exum, who agreed to a 1-year deal of his own. This was a nice sign in its own right, as he was rumored to have been courted by other contenders but chose to return to Dallas – a nice reprieve as nearly the entire coaching staff elected to do the opposite. With Exum, Brandon Williams and two-way player Ryan Nembhard alongside Russell, Dinwiddie quickly found himself as the odd man out and has since signed with the Charlotte Hornets.
As nice as the deal appears from an asset management perspective, the fit on the floor is of course critical. In what essentially amounts to a player swap – Dinwiddie for Russell – did Dallas improve?
Spencer Dinwiddie – Player Profile
Position: Point guard
Height: 6’5
Age: 32
Season Averages: 11 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists per game
Career Averages: 13 points, 3 rebounds, 5.1 assists per game
Season Shooting Splits: 41.6% field goals, 33.4% from three
Career Shooting Splits: 41.4% field goals, 33.3% from three
D’Angelo Russell – Player Profile
Position: Point guard
Height: 6’3
Age: 29
Season Averages: 12.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists per game
Career Averages: 17.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists per game
Season Shooting Splits: 39% field goals, 31.4% from three
Career Shooting Splits: 42.7% field goals, 36.5% from three
On the surface, the differences between players don’t leap off the page, so a more granular look is needed to parse out the subtleties between them.
Russell outperformed Dinwiddie in terms of points, rebounds and assists last season.
Russell is nearly three full years younger than Dinwiddie.
Russell has better career marks than Dinwiddie on all categories measured in the above Profiles.
Russell is coming off a down year in terms of shooting, especially from the three, in what was arguably his worst career year in the league.
So did the Mavericks get a win by swapping the two players? They acquired a younger, more dynamic guard with a consistently higher upside than Dinwiddie. Although it should not be overlooked that last season is the nadir of Russell’s career to date, that can at least be somewhat discounted by a mid-season trade that landed him on one of the worst squads in the league (only five teams posted a worse record than Brooklyn last year). Further, Russell is walking into a perfect situation with a metric ton of motivation. His defensive inefficiencies will be largely covered up by his teammates, and he will have a plethora of talented players around him to feed the ball to. Those same players will also take the attention off him, allowing him to capitalize in ways he couldn’t in Brooklyn. He absolutely must get his three-point shooting back up to his career averages in Dallas, as outside shooting is a need for the Mavs, but there is every reasonable expectation that he will do so given his new digs. His contract structure is no mistake either and it says a lot about his motivation. Next year will effectively be a contract year for him – he is coming to Dallas to play his best ball in hopes of opting out following the season to secure a bigger payday.
Dinwiddie’s contributions to the Mavericks should be noted. He was nothing but a professional across two stints with Dallas. Last season, he was thanklessly thrust into a bigger role than he bargained for and stepped up to the challenge. Longtime readers of Mavs Moneyball who enjoyed our grades features last season know I often factored in favorable intangibles for Dinwiddie. While it would be infuriating to see him chuck up a thirty-footer as the shot clock expired, he most often did so when the ball hot-potato’d its way to him for a bailout. More was asked of him than his role and contract warranted and he consistently showed up and played well, logging a team-high 79 games on an injury-ridden team. He now goes off to Charlotte to bring a veteran presence to a young team.
Meanwhile, Dallas looks to have improved in a meaningful way by bringing in Russell. He has proven to be a better player than Dinwiddie throughout their respective careers and will surely bring a newfound motivation to Big D as part of a better squad than the one he led last year.
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