Donte DiVincenzo Ineligible for NBA Award Over Bizarre Rule

Now that the NBA regular season is complete, it’s time to start looking at who may be a good candidate for the NBA Most Improved Player. One player who’s stuck out in that category is Donte DiVincenzo who many fans believe has had a career season.

The sixth year guard out of Villanova was a depth signing at first, a decent 3&D guy who fans saw coming off the bench for Quentin Grimes. DiVincenzo outplayed those expectations and flourished as a starter.

He set a franchise record of 283 three pointers, only Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic made more. His scoring took a jump, going from 9.4 points per game last season to 15.5 points this season. He’s also played in 81 of 82 games, logging a total of 2,360 minutes.

But despite the year DiVincenzo has had for the Knicks, he’s ineligible to be on ballots for the league’s Most Improved Player award.

The games-played requirement for NBA awards is quite confusing to many. This is how the league explains it:

“Please note that a player is eligible for this award only if he meets the criteria set forth in the NBA/NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (‘CBA’). Specifically, a player must have played in at least (a) 65 Regular Season games, or (b) 62 Regular Season games, suffered a season-ending injury as determined in accordance with the CBA, and prior to suffering such injury had played in at least 85% of his team’s Regular Season games. A player is considered to have played in a Regular Season game for these purposes if he played at least 20 minutes of such game, provided that in respect of no more than two games per Regular Season, a player is considered to have played the game if he played at least 15 and fewer than 20 minutes. A player who failed to meet the games-played requirement may nonetheless be eligible for this award if he prevailed in a challenge to establish his eligibility pursuant to procedures set forth in the CBA.”

Under this new rule, DiVincenzo only played 64 such games. The league does give credit for a maximum of two games of 15 to 20 minutes.

DiVincenzo missed the February 14 game against the Orlando Magic due to hamstring soreness. 17 of those 81 appearances do not count. He played 66 games in total where he logged 19 minutes or more, and four where fell less than only 30 seconds short of 20 minutes.

On Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Chicago Bulls, DiVincenzo played a whopping 52 minutes but fell only nine seconds short of the required playing time.

Players need to have participated in at least 65 games for a minimum of 20 minutes each to qualify for awards. DiVincenzo has credit for just 64.

“It is what it is,” DiVincenzo said.

He believes the NBA will fix this rule.

“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. 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.”

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Featured photo courtesy of NBA.com.