Donte DiVincenzo might need more minutes, shots to be at his best

Joe Nelson | 16 Hours Ago

Dec 19, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo (0) shoots against the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

The long wait for Donte DiVincenzo to play like he did for the Knicks last season might finally be over.

In the last four games, DiVincenzo is averaging 13.2 points and he's made 11 of 25 shots from 3. That's good for a 44% clip from 3-point range, which is way above his season average (33.5%) and better resembles the 40.1% he hit on last season while playing a key role in New York.

But what if we told you that DiVincenzo didn't get hot until late December last season? It's true from the standpoint that he didn't start scoring at a higher rate until.

Last season, the former Villanova Wildcat averaged 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the first 26 games. He came off the bench the first 20 games before starting the final 61 games, but his minutes didn't really spike until his seventh game in the starting lineup. That's precisely when he began scoring at a higher rate.

The seventh game with DiVincenzo in the starting lineup was on Dec. 19. From then until the end of the regular season, DiVincenzo played in 55 games and averaged 18.5 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

He averaged 33 minutes per game in those final 55 games compared to 20.5 minutes in the first 26. With more minutes came bigger numbers, all while playing superb defense and lighting up the league from 3-point range.

The thing about DiVincenzo this season that sticks out like a sore thumb is his 3-point shooting. At 33.5%, he's nowhere near the threat from 3 that he was last season. Even when he wasn't getting as many minutes in the 26 games to open last season, he still hit 59 of 133 attempts (44.4%) from 3.

DiVincenzo has started two of 29 games for Minnesota and he's averaging 24.6 minutes. Does he simply need more playing time?

It's probably oversimplifying things, but 28 seems to be a bit of a magic number. When DiVincenzo plays at least 28 minutes this season, he's shooting 39.6% from 3 (23 of 58). When he plays fewer than 28 minutes, he's shooting 30.7% from 3 (39 of 127).

The easy rebuttal is that DiVincenzo has made 11 of his last 25 triples in a four-game span in which he's averaging only 23.7 minutes. But it's a small sample size against an entire season to sample from last year when he was a New York rockstar.

It's interesting to note that DiVincenzo attempted at least ten 3-pointers in 29 games last season and he shot 40.4% (150 of 371) from deep in those games. In games that he took fewer than 10 triples, he was still awesome at 39.8% (133 of 334).

This season, he's attempted double-digit 3s only four time. However, he's knocked down 38.1% (16 of 42) trey balls in those four games.

Volume might be something DiVincenzo needs to be at his best, and if it's true then the Timberwolves might want to consider getting him 28+ minutes and encouraging him to fire 3s at a high rate.