Bulls Player Outlooks: Spencer Dinwiddie

With the season creeping closer and closer, we’ll take a look at each member of the Chicago Bulls roster and profile each player. Next up: Spencer Dinwiddie.

One of the strengths of the original Bulls’ “Bench Mob” back in 2010-11 was having athletic, two-way guards like Ronnie Brewer backing up the MVP version of Derrick Rose. With the Bulls backcourt depth this season being the priority upgrade, Gar Forman cherry-picked the best Bench Mob guard prospects based on analytics and the eye test.

Spencer Dinwiddie is only 23 years old and still has plenty to give as a former draft lottery prospect from of the 2014 draft before an ACL injury forced his stock to drop. In his last college season, Dinwiddie led the Colorado Buffaloes in assists during 20 games and was a high-percentage scoring guard, too.

Dinwiddie redeemed himself with the Detroit Pistons, who took a chance on him in the second round, but speeding up their playoff push took priority over developing promising talent like him. So, Dinwiddie found himself in Chicago after an exchange that included Cameron Bairstow.

Dinwiddie and Jerian Grant are expected to be the Bulls’ 1-2 punch for Fred Hoiberg in the back court this season. Both guards in the second unit will likely be used to hound opposing playmakers as part of a new (and hopefully improved) Bulls defense this season.

We’ve had a good look at Dinwiddie, Grant and Denzel Valentine playing at the same time during the Las Vegas Summer League and getting good mileage from all three.

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Grant and Dinwiddie can ably cover for Valentine’s mishaps on defense by having him switch to the wing and either Dinwiddie or Grant taking on the best scoring guard of the opponent. They combined shut down ex-Duke star guard Tyus Jones of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the title game out in Vegas by forcing him to take bad shots and force passes.

The two new Bulls in the back court should more than make up for the farce that was Aaron Brooks at the one, while E’Twaun Moore had to overextend his defensive game until Justin Holiday showed up. Now, the Bulls have younger and bigger guards who can stay in from of their man and force turnovers.

With Jimmy Butler getting worn down last year trying to do too much on both offense and defense, the Bulls need guys like Spencer Dinwiddie. At 6’6″ with a long wingspan, Dinwiddie can make life difficult for opposing playmakers. Dinwiddie’s long arms and athleticism force bad passes from opponents and his team is better defensively whenever he is on the court.

Both Butler and Dinwiddie on the court at the same time might also reap some rewards and turn the Bulls’ defense into easy offense.

DraftExpress had this to say about Spencer Dinwiddie’s offense coming out of Colorado: He has a “knack for attacking opposing defenders right at the moment they are on their heels.”

In his point guard stints for Detroit, you can observe Dinwiddie reading body language perfectly to either attack the hoop or pick off the passing lanes like a vulture.

Dinwiddie’s positive outlook continues with his unselfishness as a scoring point guard and looking for his teammates when they are cutting to the hoop. He has the skill that makes Valentine’s stock rise and that’s being able to thread a bullet pass into the low post at a diving big man for the score.

Our own Daniel Coughlin covered Dinwiddie’s summer league progress for the SummerBulls where at one point, he was averaging 12 points per game with 3.5 assists and three rebounds per game as the starting Bulls point guard. Grant was playing at the two while Valentine was playing more of a role as a point forward.

If Spencer Dinwiddie can stay healthy while learning Fred Hoiberg‘s flow offense and be a solid two-way guard of the future, the Bulls have a deeper team and some potentially great guard depth.