Mavs' Spencer Dinwiddie Earns Contract Bonus, Gets Fully-Guaranteed 2023-24 Salary
After tearing his ACL as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Spencer Dinwiddie signed a three-year deal worth $54 million with the Washington Wizards last summer. Naturally, there is some hesitation in giving a fully guaranteed deal to a player coming off such a major injury, requiring some precautions. He has long since been traded to the Dallas Mavericks, which has worked well.
The Wizards insulated themselves from potential downside in Dinwiddie's contract by making his final year salary partially guaranteed unless he appeared in at least 50 games in 2022-23. He made his 50th appearance of the season in Saturday's loss to the Utah Jazz, resulting in the guarantee kicking in.
“When I signed this deal, this was part of the kind of the structure in terms of the health clauses,” Dinwiddie said of his contract becoming fully guaranteed. “In my mind I had a three-year guaranteed deal because I didn’t see myself not playing 50 games. Even if it was a situation where I didn’t play back-to-back both years, I still didn’t see myself not playing 50 games.
Dinwiddie explained further: “It’s a great milestone to hit. I’m not going to sit here and act like I don’t like the money and stuff like that. I’m not going to sit here and lie to y’all.”
Dinwiddie not only is locked in to earn nearly $20.2 million next season, but he received a $1.5 million bonus that will be added to his $18 million salary for this season due to meeting that 50-game threshold.
While some may go back to comb through Dinwiddie's volume of appearances season-by-season, he made clear that a lot of his early season results was due to not receiving playing time, not because of injuries. Being durable is something that he takes pride in.
“I would say in my career in general I’ve taken pride in being durable,” Dinwiddie said. “A lot of when people talk of me not playing games, it came from my first two seasons (with Detroit in 2014-’16) where they were DNP-coach’s decisions and then obviously my ACL year, which unfortunately you can’t really control.
“Other than that I’ve taken great pride in trying to take care of my body, eat right as you guys write about a lot. Trying to be durable.”
The Mavs have benefited from Dinwiddie's durability with the need to manage Luka Doncic season-long workload. When one of the most heavily utilized players rests on the second night of a back-to-back or is injured, Dinwiddie can slide into the role of being the top backcourt option.
In the last two games that Dinwiddie has shouldered the load with Doncic sidelined, the results have been impressive. Dinwiddie scored a season-high 36 points against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, after Doncic had sprained his ankle just three minutes into the game. He followed it up by scoring 35 against the Jazz in the following game.
“He takes care of his body,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He’s a pro, he’s the first one there to get treatment to work on his body, and he’s conditioned to do what he did the (Thursday) night in Phoenix (when he played 40 minutes).
“And he believes that he can carry the load, so that helps us overall.”
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