Donte DiVincenzo had a career year with the New York Knicks last season. He averaged 15.5 points, 3.7 boards and 2.7 assists on 44.3/40.1/75.4 shooting splits. Despite his highest usage rate ever (21.3%), DiVincenzo had his best season alongside the “Nova Knicks”. After the All-Star break, DiVincenzo was averaging over 20 points per game as the 2nd leading scorer. He took on additional burdens once the Knicks lost key players in Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, and Mitchell Robinson. DiVincenzo was a big part of the reason that the Knicks made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Yet, despite all his success last season, DiVincenzo enters this season as the 16th-best shooting guard in the NBA. Is it true? Let’s dive in to see how true that number really is.
HoopsHype’s Ranking Of Donte DiVincenzo Is Disrespectful
Players That Shouldn’t Be Ranked Above Him
Austin Reaves
Austin Reaves comes in at eighth on this list. Even with a purely unbiased view, putting DiVincenzo below Reaves is not based on facts but rather on speculation. DiVincenzo was a better shooter than Reaves last season. While Reaves is the better playmaker, all the advanced metrics favor DiVincenzo. DiVincenzo had a higher PER rating, had more win shares, and had a higher net rating last season. No one can argue that Reaves’ age gives him an advantage because DiVincenzo is only one year older than him. They are both injury-free players and have a consistent history of being available for full seasons.
Malik Monk
Malik Monk ranked 14th on this list. Monk and DiVincenzo are considered to be prime candidates for the Sixth Man of the Year award, but despite Monk’s recent second-place finish, DiVincenzo is the better player. For all his hype, DiVincenzo is a far better shooter than Monk. DiVincenzo shot 40.1% from 3 on 8.7 attempts last season while Monk shot 35.0% on 5.9 attempts. DiVincenzo is also the far better defender between the two. Monk’s defensive box plus/minus last season was -1.0, while DiVincenzo’s number stood at 0.9. Donte was worth far more wins shares per 48 minutes than Monk, and the only way this ranking will stand true is if DiVincenzo regresses this season.
Bradley Beal
HoopsHype considers Bradley Beal to be the 12th-best shooting guard next season. If we consider just skill/production, this ranking makes sense. If we also consider availability (the best ability is availability), Beal has no justification for being this high. Over the last four seasons, Beal averages 50.75 games a season. To put that in context, Beal has just played 64% of all NBA games in that period. DiVincenzo, on the other hand, has played 82% of all possible games over the last four seasons.
Beal was a worse shooter, worse rebounder, and worse defender than DiVincenzo. Beal was the third option on a stacked Suns team that had no impact on the playoffs, while DiVincenzo was the second-leading scorer on the Knicks in the 2023-24 postseason.
The Last Word on Donte DiVincenzo’s HoopsHype Ranking
Despite DiVincenzo moving to the bench, he is still close to a top-12 shooting guard. DiVincenzo is a lights-out shooter who can hold his own defensively, and putting the aforementioned players above him is disrespectful. It disregards his impact last season, and calls him close to an average shooting guard, when he’s clearly above-average.
