By virtually any definition, New York Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo was among the many NBA’s most improved gamers this season.
His capturing effectivity metrics reached career-best ranges, as did his scoring, which jumped from 9.4 factors per recreation a season in the past to fifteen.5 factors this season. He drained a franchise-record 283 triples — solely Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic completed with extra — almost doubling the 150 3s he related on in the course of the 2022-23 marketing campaign.
Past all that, he suited up and performed in 81 of 82 video games for demanding Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, logging a career-high 2,360 minutes within the course of.
Nonetheless, DiVincenzo will not find yourself factoring into the Most Improved Participant award voting; it seems he is ineligible because of a caveat within the league’s guidelines, an NBA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
It has been properly established since final offseason that candidates for the main leaguewide awards have to look in a minimal of 65 video games to be eligible. Nevertheless, for a recreation to rely towards that complete, gamers should log not less than 20 minutes of taking part in time.
DiVincenzo completed the common season with 62 such appearances. The league permits for a tiny little bit of leeway, giving gamers credit score for as much as two extra 20-minute showings in the event that they log between 15 and 20 minutes of taking part in time. However even with these tacked on, DiVincenzo — who performed a whopping 52 minutes in Sunday’s regular-season finale in opposition to the Bulls — comes up brief, with credit score for simply 64 qualifying appearances.
DiVincenzo had 66 video games during which he logged 19½ minutes or extra — together with 4 appearances that fell lower than 30 seconds wanting the 20-minute complete — however the NBA does not spherical up official minute totals.
CBS Sports activities first reported the odd statistical quirk, which the league confirmed would go away DiVincenzo ineligible for the award. DiVincenzo and the Knicks, who had already completed their media availability Tuesday by the point the story was revealed, weren’t instantly out there for remark.
A few award voters, together with ESPN’s JJ Redick and The Ringer’s Michael Pina, wrote that they’d deliberate to incorporate DiVincenzo on their ballots earlier than realizing they could not vote for him.
DiVincenzo wasn’t even the one Knick who discovered himself ineligible after an enormous year-over-year enchancment. Teammate Isaiah Hartenstein, who, like DiVincenzo, noticed his minutes improve significantly in December when he went from being a reserve to one of many group’s starters, additionally didn’t qualify for the award regardless of taking part in in 75 video games this season.
DiVincenzo and Hartenstein — who completed tied for fourth leaguewide in largest improve in worth over substitute participant in comparison with final season — being dominated ineligible after getting greater roles with their groups may immediate the league to revamp or loosen the award {qualifications} going ahead.
