Mavericks fans ready to say goodbye to polarizing guard in free agency

The Dallas Mavericks have had busy past couple of days leading up to the NBA Draft and their presumptive selection of Cooper Flagg, as lead assistant coach Sean Sweeney departed for the San Antonio Spurs to join Mitch Johnson as an associate head coach. Then on Monday it was announced the Mavericks signed Daniel Gafford to a three-year $54 million contract extension, as the Mavericks are laying the foundation for what will be a busy offseason after drafting Flagg.

One of Dallas' main priorities this offseason will be getting guard help, as Kyrie Irving is projected to miss well more than half of next season with a torn ACL, but the Mavericks also have decisions to make when it comes to two of their own free agent guards this summer. Both Dante Exum and Spencer Dinwiddie will be unrestricted free agents this summer, and while there have been inklings that the Mavericks would like to bring Exum back despite overseas interest, there hasn't been any reporting about the Mavericks' interest in bringing Dinwiddie back yet.

Many Mavericks fans are speculating on social media that Dinwiddie will sign elsewhere after having played on a veteran's minimum in Dallas last season, but it will be interesting to see what the market is for the 32-year-old guard after he hasn't been able to reach the same level of efficiency offensively in the past few seasons that he displayed with the Mavericks during the 2022-23 season.

Mavericks fans are expecting Dinwiddie to be gone this summer

In 79 games played for the Mavericks last season, Dinwiddie averaged 11 points, 4.4 assists, and 0.9 steals per game on 41.6/33.4/80.2 shooting splits. Dinwiddie had stretches where his 3-ball was popping and he looked like a totally different offensive player last season, but the issue was that these stretches were too far and few between compared to his first go around in Dallas.

Later in the season, it certainly hurt Dinwiddie not being able to play next to multiple elite creators like he had with Irving and Luka Doncic earlier in the season, but he did will the Mavericks to a few victories during their injury-riddled stretch when he caught fire shooting the ball. Dinwiddie didn't have a horrendous season by any means, but he was the least efficient out of all of Dallas' guards that ended the season and played the most out of any guard on the roster last season.

It was a telling move by head coach Jason Kidd to only play Dinwiddie a combined six minutes in both of Dallas' Play-In Tournament games this past season, as Kidd yanked Dinwiddie from the rotation despite him playing heavy minutes to close the season leading up to postseason action. Dinwiddie also isn't an elite defender by any means, despite improving marginally in that area over the past couple of seasons, and he oftentimes over-relied on his first step or his ability to draw contact when driving to the rim on offense.

Dinwiddie was simply a more dynamic three-level scorer in his first go around in Dallas, and this very well could be because of the elite shot creation he was surrounded by that allowed him be more decisive in space, but it's clear Dallas needs a guard with more scoring and playmaking chops than Dinwiddie has this summer. It's still possible Dinwiddie comes back on another minimum deal if Dallas loses Exum and has to relinquish Hardy in a trade for a starting-level guard or something of that nature, but it's more than likely he signs elsewhere on a small deal.