Milwaukee Bucks: 3 bold predictions for 2019-20 NBA season

3. Donte DiVincenzo will receive votes for Sixth Man of the Year

The 2017-18 Villanova Wildcats sliced through the NCAA Tournament field and won the title, and Donte DiVincenzo won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award. What was unique about DiVincenzo’s performance was that he came off the bench to score 31 points in the championship game.

A player with that sort of explosion is the one Milwaukee took with the 17th pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, only to see injuries rob the rookie guard of much of his first season. He played in just 27 games, averaging 4.9 points per game and shooting just 40.3 percent from the field.

DiVincenzo enters this season healthy, and the loss of Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell has opened up room in the rotation for another contributor. George Hill will back up Eric Bledsoe and Kyle Korver will be on a careful rotation, but neither add the sort of microwave creation that DiVincenzo can at his best.

If he can carve out a consistent spot in Mike Budenholzer’s rotation, then he will score points. A healthy DiVincenzo is fast enough to attack the rim and can shoot well enough to punish teams that assume his direction too early. Last season was a lost year for the dynamic guard, but this year could be his chance to make a difference and even bring home the Sixth Man of the Year award.