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Upon being traded to the Brooklyn Nets, D’Angelo Russell’s fantasy basketball stock grew automatically. He mostly delivered, averaging 20.9 points, 5.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game, but a knee injury has sidelined him for the last three games and surgery last Friday has him out indefinitely.
Over those last three games, with Jeremy Lin out for the season. Spencer Dinwiddie has become Brooklyn’s starting point guard. On Sunday against the Golden State Warriors, he had 21 points (11-for-13 from the line) with eight assists, two rebounds and a steal. In the previous game against the Utah Jazz, Dinwiddie set a career-high with 25 points (6-for-10 from beyond the arc) while adding eight assists and five rebounds. Before that, in his first start after Russell was out, Dinwiddie posted a double-double (12 points and 11 assists).
Dinwiddie has started five games this season, with more than 20 points three times and at least six assists four times. His usage rate as a starter this year is a solid, but almost sure to rise, 21.6 percent (via Basketball Reference).
As expected, Dinwiddie is a hot waiver wire pickup in fantasy basketball leagues. But as of this writing he’s still available in 42 percent of Yahoo! leagues, and just over 62 percent of ESPN leagues.
Dinwiddie won’t score 20-plus points in every game, and if this small sample as a starter is any indication he’ll be a streaky three-point shooter. But he has an unchecked role while Russell is out, and that’s a fruitful proposition for fantasy owners.