Cut immediately after signing the contract? Are you really going to be abandoned this time?

It’s hard to imagine that he just signed a new contract and was thrown out by the team before the regular season even started.

According to Shams, the Charlotte Hornets officially waived 32-year-old veteran Dinwiddie.

For a senior player who once averaged 20+ per game, he has now fallen to the fringe level of the league. But after this news of layoffs, there is a question:

Since they chose to waive Dinwiddie before the regular season even started, why did the Hornets sign him in the first place?

You know, on the third day of the free market in July this year, the Hornets were eager to take action and offered Dinwiddie a one-year minimum salary contract. As a result, less than three months later and the regular season hadn't even started yet, the Hornets overturned their previous choices and directly laid off employees in advance to stop losses.

This wave of operations is really difficult to understand. If it is just because the team's lineup needs to be adjusted, Dinwiddie was the first reinforcement signed by the Hornets; but if it is said that Dinwiddie's performance was too poor, he did not play a few games in the preseason and did not get any performance opportunities at all.

It can only be said that it is indeed a Hornet. The outrageous trading tradition left over from the days of Boss Qiao still seems to have not been changed.

Referring to his performance last season, he played in a total of 79 games while playing for the Mavericks, 30 of which were as starters. He averaged 27 minutes per game, with personal data of 11 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists. Although the basic data is not explosive, it should not be a level that should be abandoned.

If we must find the problem, it is that Dinwiddie's efficiency is too low. Last season, the field goal percentage was 41.6%, the three-point shooting percentage was 33.4%, and the true shooting percentage was 55.3%. Combined with the defensive performance, it may not be difficult to understand. His defensive BPM value throughout his career was -0.6, and it plummeted to -0.7 last season.

Referring to the data from last season, when Dinwiddie played, the Mavericks lost their opponents by 5 points per 100 possessions; when he was not on the court, the team was able to outscore their opponents by 3.4 points per 100 possessions. The 8-point gap is enough to explain a lot. The longer he plays, the more the team's defense collapses.

This is also the reason why the Mavericks gave up on renewing his contract during the offseason. What's incomprehensible is that for such an old guard who didn't get much playing time in the injury-riddled Mavericks, the Hornets actually offered him a contract as soon as he was laid off.

From the perspective of the Hornets, they are still in the rebuilding stage. Their current goal is to develop young players and discover future cores. Under this goal, the team chose to sign a 32-year-old veteran with only one purpose, to serve as a locker room leader and lead new players.

But looking at Dinwiddie's career resume, he has never led a team, and he is not considered a big brother guard like Paul or Rondo. Although the 32-year-old has spent 11 seasons in the NBA, judging from his player attributes, he is indeed not the kind of veteran mentor who can lead newcomers.

In the early stages of his career, he was at his peak during the Nets' rebuilding period, but he was also exposed to attitude problems, and his guidance value to young players in training was almost zero. This style is not unique among veterans, but for a rebuilding team, if the veterans cannot play the role of mentor, they are basically a complete negative resource.

Perhaps when the Hornets first signed the contract, they hoped that he could lead a group of young people and stabilize the rhythm of the game. However, judging from the preseason games, Dinwiddie still played like the core of the team, eager to attack and sticking to the ball for a long time.

Judging from the performance of the game alone, there is indeed nothing wrong with the Hornets choosing to waive him.

Looking back at the career trajectory of this old guard, it is actually quite inspiring. As the 38th pick in the second round in 2014, he has no genius aura and no super talent, but he still worked hard to become a starter from the edge of the bench and upgraded to a star-level guard with an average of 20+ per game in the Nets.

At that time, he was the core key for the Nets to enter the playoffs, but now, in the new era of small-ball and faster-paced play in the league, Dinwiddie's playing style has become increasingly inferior; he is neither a stable organizational point nor a shooting shooter. Coupled with the decline in athletic ability, his position is naturally becoming more and more embarrassing.

From this perspective, there is absolutely no logic in the Hornets' eagerness to sign Dinwiddie.

Combined with the team lineup, the Hornets are already overcrowded in the backcourt.

Three-goal Ball is the first core, and 24-year-old Tremain is a target to be developed. In the offseason, Sexton was traded from the Jazz, and the fourth overall pick in the draft was forward swingman Knipper. With such a bloated defense line, these young defenders alone are not enough to share the rotation time and ball rights. How many opportunities can veteran Dinwiddie have?

In short, Dinwiddie was more of a temporary insurance option for the team. However, after signing the contract, he found that the insurance was slightly overpriced, so he immediately chose to stop the loss.

To be very realistic, Dinwiddie's NBA future is basically gone. The only possibility at this stage is the Rockets. After VanVleet fell injured and fell, there was a temporary vacancy in the point guard line. But there is also a problem. The Rockets only have 1.25 million salary space due to hard cap restrictions, and they cannot afford the veteran's minimum salary at all. Not to mention that the Rockets also need to train young guards such as Amen Thompson and Shepard.

If you open your mind, the CBA on the other side of the ocean may be an opportunity for Dinwiddie..

Dinwiddie currently endorses a Chinese brand and has frequently participated in China tours during the offseason in recent years. Compared with other veterans, Dinwiddie still has a certain degree of popularity among Chinese fans. And if he really chooses to join the CBA, with his current offensive level with the ball, it is basically not a problem to deliver a stable output of 20 points per game.

The CBA's requirements for foreign players happen to be those who can carry the ball and play output. This is basically a standard tailor-made for Dinwiddie. If he is really willing to try, this is actually a pretty good choice.