It’s hard to argue that Donte DiVincenzo isn’t one of the NBA’s most improved players, but the Knicks shooting guard won’t be in the running to win the regular season accolade for that particular award.
Thanks to a stipulation in the league’s rules, DiVincenzo will not be eligible to factor into the vote for the NBA’s most improved player, a league spokesperson told ESPN.
CBS Sports was first to report DiVincenzo’s ineligibility for the Most Improved Player award.
Under new regulations put in place this offseason, for a player to qualify for a major league-level award, they must play at least 65 games during the season. And for a game to count towards this total, the player must log at least 20 minutes of play.
DiVincenzo missed three games to meet this latest requirement, and even with the wiggle room the league allows – it gives players credit for up to two additional games if they played between 15 and 20 minutes in contests – he did not reach the league benchmarks by one game.
Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein would also not be eligible for regular season awards due to the same issue with minutes.
What makes the situation even stranger is that DiVincenzo has had 66 games in which he played 19 and a half minutes or more, but because the NBA doesn’t round minute totals, he still hasn’t meets the required requirements.
DiVincenzo took a huge leap in his game this season, going from 9.4 points per game to 15.5 this season and made a franchise record 283 3-pointers during the season.
He played in 81 of the Knicks’ 82 games this season and logged a career-high 2,360 minutes.
He played a career-high 53 minutes in Sunday’s win over the Bulls.
“It was actually good,” DiVincenzo said of his long match after the victory. “Now we’re in the playoffs and we’re all locked in and there’s no back-to-back.”
The Knicks finished the season 50-32 and will begin their playoff run Saturday as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
New York Post
