Donte DiVincenzo thinks the NBA will fix the flaw in the system.
After being the surprised victim of growing pains in the league’s new 65-game rule, DiVincenzo took in stride — “it is what it is,” he said — and acknowledged it was hardly a guarantee he’d have won Most Improved Player regardless.
Despite averaging 38 minutes since February, the Knicks guard was ruled ineligible for postseason awards because he didn’t play 20 or more minutes in at least 63 games (plus two games of playing at least 15 minutes).
The problem was DiVincenzo, who finished with 81 games, started the season as a reserve and didn’t begin logging heavy minutes until about a quarter into the season.
He missed the cutoff by nine seconds in a single game.
“I think the league will probably look at the rule going forward, but it’s not something where if I got the nine seconds, I’m a shoe-in to win the award,” DiVincenzo said. “It’s not that situation. So, for me, I don’t really care about it. I think going forward, you look at the rule. You adjust it accordingly. And you just go from there. And that’s pretty much the only thinking.”
DiVincenzo was probably a long-shot candidate for Most Improved after obliterating the Knicks single-season record for 3s and raising his scoring average to 15.5 per game.
The spirit of the 65-game rule is to assure participation from the league’s best players after so many were missing games.
By putting a threshold for the number of games with at least 20 minutes played, the league is trying to prevent a star from playing a few seconds in the final contests for eligibility.
That certainly wasn’t what DiVincenzo was doing.
“Obviously that’s a bummer,” Josh Hart said. “That’s the downside of the first year of the rule. You knew there were going to be guys that got the short end of that stick. Now they kind of see it in action and hopefully this summer they can reconvene and kind of figure out ways to still have that rule, but to not punish guys for playing a smaller role.”
Team USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill ran away from an explanation when asked about snubbing Jalen Brunson for the Olympics.
“I think it’s important for me to really honor and celebrate the 12 that are on the team and not get caught up in why this person or that person,” Hill said on a conference call. “I will say this, just in general: There were some really difficult decisions that were to be made. You have players who are incredible, players who have helped us in years past. Helped us win gold medals. You have players who are having current seasons that are just off the charts. The job was putting together a team, and a team that we felt and ultimately, I felt, the pieces fit.”
Hill was complimentary of Brunson’s “magical” season with the Knicks but left him off the Paris Olympics roster while taking Tyrese Haliburton, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker.