Report: Nets 'shopping' injured Spencer Dinwiddie

The Nets are “shopping” injured guard Spencer Dinwiddie, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated said during an appearance on ESPN’s "The Jump" on Thursday (video link via Billy Reinhardt of NetsDaily).

Dinwiddie, who suffered a partially torn ACL near the start of the season, has been pushing to make it back before the end of the playoffs but is considered likely to be sidelined for the rest of 2020-21. Since he has the ability to opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, his appeal on the trade market would be limited. However, the opportunity to acquire his Bird rights may intrigue certain clubs, and his $11.45M cap hit could be useful for salary-matching.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes, one downside of moving Dinwiddie for the Nets would be that the team would lose its $5.7M disabled player exception, assuming that exception hasn’t already been utilized. The club has until April 19 to use that DPE, but it would forfeit it if Dinwiddie is traded.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

• Sixers forward Tobias Harris left Thursday’s game early after hurting his left knee, but he appears to have avoided a serious injury. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) and Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, an MRI showed no structural damage, confirming that Harris suffered a knee contusion. He’ll miss Saturday’s game vs. Cleveland will be re-evaluated in a couple days, per the team.
• The Bulls have played some of their best basketball this season with Lauri Markkanen unavailable, going 5-9 with the power forward in the lineup and 10-7 without him. However, head coach Billy Donovan still believes that the injured Markkanen is an “important piece to our team,” as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes. Markkanen will be eligible for restricted free agency at season’s end.
• JaKarr Sampson has been ruled out for Friday’s game due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols, making him the first Pacers player to miss a game due to the COVID-19 protocols this season, tweets Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files.