Two A’s and a B plus. Those were the respective grades that Yahoo Sports, SNY, and Bleacher Report gave the Knicks for their signing of Donte DiVincenzo. They listed his outside shooting, which had jumped up to 39.7% the season prior, his energy, tendency to be in the right spots, secondary playmaking, and defense as reasons why the four-year $47 million signing not only made sense but was a good and necessary one for a Knicks team who was in dire need for some spacing and wing depth.
So going into the season, it’s safe to say that fans had pretty high expectations for the former Villanova Wildcat. Yet somehow, he blew past those expectations and turned into one of the best value contracts in the entire league. But early on in the season, that was far from the case.
DiVincenzo started the season coming off the bench, slotting behind Quentin Grimes, whose perimeter defense and acceptance to take on a lesser role offensively seemingly fit the starting lineup better. And in the first 20 games of the season, which saw DiVincenzo start just two games, the backup shooting guard averaged just 9.1PPG on 42.5% shooting. The recently signed wing was still making two threes per game in just 20.3MPG and provided a nice spark off the bench but he had almost as many turnovers as assists, his playmaking hadn’t really been displayed, and he had a few defensive lapses here and there as well.
On December 8th though, DiVincenzo was inserted into the starting lineup to replace Grimes, who had been struggling mightily offensively and had voiced his frustration with his offensive role. This change, contrary to what many believed, didn’t accomplish much at first. Grimes, outside of a couple of games where he looked more confident, couldn’t gain any offensive consistency. Meanwhile, the impact of DiVincenzo’s new role was, as a whole, rather neutral as well. In the 11 games from December 8th to the 29th, the sharpshooter averaged just 10.6PPG, 2.9RPG, and 2APG in 21.4MPG. While his spacing did seem to help the offense, it came at the cost of the defense, which looked noticeably worse with Grimes now coming off the bench.
But, as we all know now, the season would change drastically on December 30th as the Knicks traded away RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for Toronto’s OG Anunoby. Later that day, with Anunoby still not ready and with the pair of homegrown rotation players headed out, the Knicks were tasked with playing the Indiana Pacers with what you could call a shorthanded roster. DiVincenzo took this opportunity to explode for a game-high 38 points on 15-21 shooting from the field and 7-11 from three. While the valiant effort came in a loss, we saw a glimpse of just how explosive, dynamic, and game-changing a shooter DiVincenzo was capable of becoming.
And much to the joy of the Knicks and their fans, he didn’t really look back after that game. After playing in every game up until that point, DiVincenzo would go on to miss just one game the rest of the way and averaged 19.2PPG, 4.2RPG, 3.2APG, 1.5SPG, and .5BPG while shooting 44.2% from the field and 39.1% from three on an absurd 10 attempts per game. His on-court synergy with the non-Villanova players improved, as did the defense, and playmaking.
