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The New York Knicks got their guy.
This was the reason they agreed to trade Obi Toppin for two second-round picks Saturday afternoon. It was the reason they finagled their finances leading into free agency to create a little more wiggle room under the luxury tax. It was all so they could sign former Golden State Warriors guard Donte DiVincenzo.
Now, they’ve done it.
The Knicks and DiVincenzo agreed to a four-year, $50 million contract Saturday evening, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. The contract has no options in it, league sources said.
The 6-foot-5 DiVincenzo adds a shooter, ballhandler and high-energy defender to a squad that is now overflowing with guards his size or smaller. He averaged 9.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists on 44 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent 3-point shooting last season. Meanwhile, the match appears scripted by the basketball gods.
DiVincenzo joins two of his college teammates, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, with whom he won a national championship at Villanova. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has sought after DiVincenzo ever since his collegiate days, as well. Back in 2018, when DiVincenzo was a first-round draft pick and Thibodeau was running the Minnesota Timberwolves, Thibodeau was hoping DiVincenzo would fall to him at pick No. 20, The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski reported at the time. But the Milwaukee Bucks scooped up DiVincenzo, and Thibodeau’s Wolves snagged another guard, Josh Okogie, instead.
The 26-year-old DiVincenzo adds more playoff experience to a group that made a run to the Eastern Conference semifinals this past spring. He was with the Warriors for a second-round playoff run in May. He’s gone to the second round with the Bucks, too — though he was injured for most of Milwaukee’s title run in 2021.
Now questions come about how he might fit with the players already in New York.
The Knicks’ first goal heading into the offseason was to add shooting. They finished this past regular season tied for third in points per possession, but they did it despite subpar 3-point accuracy. The offense cramped up during the second-round postseason loss to the Miami Heat, who took advantage of New York’s unreliable long-range shooting and scrunched the floor around Brunson. The offense bogged down, and the Knicks bowed out 4-2.
DiVincenzo is coming off a career-best season from deep: 40 percent. He’s a 36 percent 3-point shooter for his career. He adds another player who can create his shot to an offense that now has plenty of them — and to a roster that’s now loaded at guard.
Brunson, Quentin Grimes, Immanuel Quickley and Hart are already in orange and blue, as is RJ Barrett. Julius Randle, though of course not one of the guards, is another one of those creators, too. The Knicks didn’t get DiVincenzo halfway to nine figures, a contract worth nearly all of the non-taxpayer midlevel exception (MLE), just for him to take Toppin’s 15-to-17 minutes a game, and that’s it. He’ll play more, and that means, if the roster stays as is, he is due to eat into someone else’s playing time.
The Knicks also may not be done. They could have another trade in them. If they pull one off that frees them of cash, they could use the $4.5 million biannual exception to sign another player and still stay under the luxury tax, which they are encroaching on with the addition of DiVincenzo.
They gave DiVincenzo just less than the $12.4 million midlevel exception. He will make $11.6 million in Year 1 of his contract, which leaves just enough room for the Knicks to sign an undrafted rookie to a multi-year deal with the rest of the midlevel.
The Knicks now have 14 players on the roster with a $161.3 million payroll, which includes about $6 million combined in non-guaranteed salary for Jericho Sims, Isaiah Roby and DaQuan Jeffries. They are approximately $4 million below the luxury tax line.
Using the midlevel exception also means New York is hard capped at $172.3 million. Its payroll cannot, under any circumstances or at any time, go over that number.
But the Knicks shuffled around players and money to make this happen. They had Hart pick up his $13 million player option when he could have earned more in the short term by declining it and entering unrestricted free agency. An extension for Hart in August is now likely, one that will pay him more money down the line than a free-agent contract would have. They traded Obi Toppin so DiVincenzo’s contract could slide in under the luxury tax, which they won’t venture into unless a move that turns them into a contender is the one that does it. After all, the Knicks need a backup power forward after dealing away Toppin, and they’re still short on wings.
They took a little bite out of their future and another tiny one out of their flexibility to make this happen. They can rest now knowing they’ve pulled it off.