Milwaukee Bucks: Evaluating Donte DiVincenzo’s rookie season

The Milwaukee Bucks’ first round selection from the 2018 NBA Draft, Donte DiVincenzo, had an up-and-down rookie season. How did it all unfold?

When the Milwaukee Bucks selected guard Donte DiVincenzo with the 17th overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft, the team knew what it was getting. A player who averaged 13.4 points per game his junior season at Villanova, the former Wildcat put his full talent on display with a 31-point outburst in the NCAA championship game.

Shooting 48.1 percent from the field and canning triples at a 40.1 percent clip in 2017-18, Milwaukee took DiVincenzo hoping to acquire some reliable shooting off the bench. Playing in 27 NBA Summer League minutes, he managed to score just a single point in two games. The first-year guard’s role heading into his initial NBA campaign was likely to be a minor one. As a 6’4″, 203-pound shooting guard without many elite characteristics, his work was already cut out for him.

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork for DiVincenzo’s rookie season, let’s sift through everything and tell the story of how much of an impact he was able to make with the good, the bad and everything in between.

Positives

Simply put, there weren’t too many positive takeaways from DiVincenzo’s first season in the NBA. His most highly-touted skill coming into the league was his ability to serve as a sniper from deep, but he was far more efficient from inside the arc than beyond it. Although his 3-point shot wasn’t falling (this will be addressed later), DiVincenzo converted on over 68 percent of his field goal attempts from elsewhere on the court.

What was even more promising was his ability to rebound the ball. For a guard, especially one at his size, grabbing 2.4 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per game is quite solid. When extrapolated out to per 36 minutes figures, that average rises to 5.7. Had he played enough to qualify for that stat, it would’ve ranked in the top 20 among all guards in the league.

Defensive rating isn’t the be-all, end-all for basketball players, but it generally does a solid job of painting a picture of how well (or poorly) a player performs on the defensive end. Among players with at least 20 games played this, DiVincenzo’s defensive rating of 97.0 ranked fifth. As with everything discussed so far, the sample size is quite small. However, it’s promising nonetheless.

Negatives

Then, of course, there’s this:

Battling heel bursitis throughout the year, DiVincenzo was sapped of a lot of potential playing time in 2018-19. It limited him to just 27 games played, and also raises the question of whether or not the injury could’ve had an impact on his on-court performance when “healthy.” Heading into his sophomore campaign, health will be a key factor to keep an eye on.

Going back to how things fared on the court, after being one of the best 3-point shooters in the country throughout his final college season, DiVincenzo shot a putrid 26.5 percent from deep with the Bucks this year. Eighty-three attempts is far from a season’s worth of a sample size, but to see a reliable shooter struggle that much over the course of a season is a bit concerning. In four games with the Milwaukee Herd, the Bucks’ G League affiliate, his efficiency from beyond the arc rose just 0.4 percent.

It isn’t necessarily a weakness or a concern due to the team around him and his natural position on the floor, but DiVincenzo’s fairly low assist production is worth noting. Should he continue playing as a backup shooting guard, that number likely won’t rise much, but it’s something to monitor as the rest of his game progresses.

The verdict

In all, DiVincenzo’s rookie season saw a few more growing pains — and physical pains — than expected. Although he managed to stick around at the NBA level for most of the year and received consistent playing time when healthy, the 22-year-old simply wasn’t consistent. In terms of health, shooting and overall performance, there needs to be a significant improvement.

On the other hand, DiVincenzo is still young and was battling injury throughout the year. Learning how to navigate the NBA on the fly while dealing with a significant injury is hard. There are still a few things for him to hang his hat on. Providing strong rebounding and defense off the bench, neither of those traits should be ignored. The shooting will naturally improve as DiVincenzo becomes more comfortable on the court.

The checklist for DiVincenzo’s offseason should be simple. First and foremost, get healthy and stay healthy. That will make everything else a lot easier. Secondly, get back to the basics on offense. Focus on being an efficient shooter. Last, but certainly not least, get excited for year two. Instead of a sophomore slump, we may see a rejuvenated and motivated Donte DiVincenzo heading into the 2019-20 campaign.