It’s hard to argue that Donte DiVincenzo isn’t one of the most improved players in the NBA, but the Knicks shooting guard won’t be in the running to earn the regular season accolade for that particular award.
Thanks to a stipulation in the league’s rules, DiVincenzo won’t be eligible to factor into the voting for the NBA’s Most Improved Player, a league spokesperson told ESPN.
CBS Sports had been the first to report on DiVincenzo’s ineligibility for the Most Improved Player award.
Under new regulations put in place last offseason, for any player to qualify for a major league-wide award, they have to play in at least 65 games during the season, and for a game to count toward that total, the player has to log at least 20 minutes of playing time.
DiVincenzo came up three games shy of meeting the latter requirement, and even with the wiggle room the league allows — it gives players credit for up to two more games if they’ve played between 15 and 20 minutes in contests — he fell short of the league benchmarks by one game.
Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein also would fail to be eligible for regular season awards due to the same issue with minutes.
What makes the situation even more odd is that DiVincenzo had 66 games in which he played 19 ½ minutes or more, but since the NBA doesn’t round up minutes totals, he still fell short of the needed requirements.
DiVincenzo took a massive leap in his game this season, jumping from 9.4 points per game to 15.5 this season and knocked down 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 in a career-high 53 minutes in Sunday’s win over the Bulls.
“It was actually fine,” DiVincenzo said about his long game after the win. “Now we’re in the playoffs and we’re all locked in and there’s no back-to-backs.”
The Knicks finished the season 50-32 and will start their playoff run on Saturday as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.