The New York Knicks wanted a shooter. They got one. They preferred an extra ballhandler. They got one of those, too. They searched for another hard-nosed personality. They landed that, as well. And they acquired it all in one player.
Over this past weekend, the Knicks finalized their pact with former Golden State Warriors guard Donte DiVincenzo, signing the shooting guard to a four-year, $47 million contract.
DiVincenzo may be new to New York, but he’s hardly unfamiliar to the rest of the NBA.
The Milwaukee Bucks drafted him at No. 17 in 2018. He made a pit stop with the Sacramento Kings before heading to the Warriors last summer. Now that he’s with the Knicks, let’s dive deep into his history.
Knicks beat writer Fred Katz gathered the two reporters who have covered DiVincenzo at previous stops — Warriors beat writer Anthony Slater and Bucks beat writer Eric Nehm — to discuss what the 26-year-old could offer his new squad, his fit with New York, his career-best shooting performance, his biggest improvements since joining the NBA and more.
Here is what they had to say.
Katz: DiVincenzo signed for $47 million over four seasons, almost all of the midlevel exception. What do you think of the contract? And what are your thoughts on his fit with the Knicks?
Slater: I think it’s fair value for both sides. I view the prototypical midlevel candidate as a high-minute bench guy who can spot start and close on any given night. DiVincenzo can and has competed for contending teams at two stops early in his career. There are a few other players who grabbed contracts this summer near DiVincenzo’s average annual value: Joe Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, Gabe Vincent, Coby White, Dennis Schröder. If you ranked that group, he’d be toward the top.
He’s going to fit with the Knicks from a culture standpoint. He’s a smart player, competitive defender and sneaky rebounder who makes winning plays in the margins. The Villanova background is real. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau will love him. But it does feel like there’s a positional logjam and maybe some roster overlap in New York. You’d have a better feel for that, Fred. But I will say that DiVincenzo was in a pretty crowded backcourt last season and seamlessly shifted between roles – bench, starter, on ball, off ball, used as a wing in three-guard lineups. He’s a flexible piece.
Katz: There’s no question about the log jam. The Knicks have Jalen Brunson, Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, Josh Hart and RJ Barrett already. If the roster stays as is, they can open it up some by using Hart and Barrett at backup power forward. Those small lineups can provide more shooting than the Knicks could put out last season when they struggled from behind the arc. The addition of DiVincenzo will be a big part of that.
So, let’s get to his 3-point shooting next, since he was better than ever from deep this past season. He shot a career-best 40 percent from 3-point range. How much of that do you think had to do with him playing alongside Hall of Famers who attracted loads of attention and how much of that was legitimate shooting improvement? The Knicks don’t have the spacers that Golden State does. Do you see his jumpers becoming more difficult outside of the Warriors offense?
Slater: His shot was one of the biggest questions entering last season. It’s why the Warriors were able to steal him on a $4.3 million bargain. He said he was rusty after returning from that bad ankle injury and that’s why he struggled to shoot it his final season in Milwaukee (and during his brief stay in Sacramento). The cumulative 3-point percentage leading into last season: 33.9 percent.
He was proven correct. A healthier DiVincenzo made 39.7 percent of his 3s on a high volume (150 of 378) in his lone season as a Warrior. The extra space in lineups with both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson helped. Tracking data shows that nearly all of his 3s were with at least four feet of space. Maybe that closes a bit with the Knicks. But he has a pretty quick trigger and made 42 percent of his catch-and-shoots. I’d imagine 39.7 percent overall from 3 may be the high side for his career, but I’d bet he’ll live in the 37 percent range for the Knicks next season.
Katz: How about another part of his offense? DiVincenzo could make plays when he needed to last season. How do you believe he is best used as a ballhandler?
Slater: As a secondary creator.
Don’t put him up top and design pick-and-roll touches for him. That isn’t an efficient way to score. But he can grab and go with a rebound, make a play late in the clock if it’s swung his direction and also run a more elaborate set when needed. The Warriors start Curry off the ball a ton, which meant DiVincenzo would bring the ball up in certain lineups. He’s an unspectacular but safe ballhandler. Warriors coach Steve Kerr trusted him, which says plenty.
Katz: DiVincenzo isn’t particularly long and he’s not a shutdown one-on-one defender, but he is feisty. He’s sneaky in passing lanes, as I wrote about earlier this week. He’ll get steals. He could get out on the break last season. The Knicks play a specific type of defense; the Tom Thibodeau special, if you will. They want to take away the paint. They collapse in from the corners whenever dribblers infiltrate the lane and have to recover onto shooters with urgency.
Eric, I’m curious to get your take on this. DiVincenzo has played with a physical rim protector before in Milwaukee. How do you see him fitting into a defensive system like the one the Knicks have?
Nehm: DiVincenzo has a nose for the ball and strong instincts, so despite having short arms, he typically does a nice job causing chaos for opposing offenses. He jumps passing lanes well and often deflects dribbles and passes as a help defender, which has led to a strong steal rate throughout his career.
It might be a slightly underrated skill, but DiVincenzo is an elite defensive rebounder. He’s athletic enough to go battle and grab rebounds among the trees around the rim. This made him a solid match for Brook Lopez because Lopez could freely try to block and influence shots because he trusted DiVincenzo to help clean up the glass. It seems possible that DiVincenzo could do similar things with the Knicks, especially after seeing another elite defensive rebounder like Josh Hart have success last season.
Katz: What would you say is the skill DiVincenzo has improved on the most since entering the NBA? What is the one that he still needs to develop most?
Nehm: As a rookie, DiVincenzo shot just 27 percent from the 3-point line in limited action before suffering a left foot injury that forced him to miss the second half of that season. He then hit 34 percent from 3, but when he took over as a full-time starter for the Bucks in the 2020-21 season, he made 38 percent from 3. Aside from an injury-riddled start to the 2021-22 season where he struggled with just about everything offensively, including his shot, DiVincenzo has been a consistently good shooter.
As for what he needs to improve on, DiVincenzo is athletic and shifty enough to get to the basket, but he just hasn’t been a strong enough finisher throughout his career. Last season, he made 63 percent of his shots at the rim, which was a massive improvement for him, but still roughly league average for his position, according to Cleaning the Glass. In the 2020-21 season, DiVincenzo made just 54 percent of his attempts at the rim and was even worse in the 2021-22 season, when he made only 46 percent of his shots at the rim with the Bucks and the Kings.
Katz: Tell me something fun or interesting you’ve learned over the years about DiVincenzo that I don’t know.
Nehm: While I don’t know what jersey number he will wear in New York, DiVincenzo once told me that he wore zero in Milwaukee (and subsequently Sacramento and Golden State) because he idolized Russell Westbrook when he was growing up and he always felt like he could associate his own game with Westbrook’s.