Montrezl Harrell still atop NBA Sixth Man of the Year Ladder

Donte DiVincenzo continues to play a bigger role off the bench for the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks of late, but slid down the ladder one rung from his position on Jan. 25.

In eight games over the last four weeks (DiVincenzo missed Milwaukee’s Jan. 31 loss at home to the Nuggets with a sprained left ankle), the second-year man from Villanova averaged 11.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 23.3 minutes per game, shooting 49.3 percent overall and hitting 39.4 percent on 4.1 3-point attempts a night.

DiVincenzo had played in 50 of the Bucks’ 55 games so far, making 20 starts, and is averaging 9.2 points, 4.7 boards, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals in 22.8 minutes nightly on shooting of 45.9 percent overall and 34.6 percent on 3.6 deep balls per contest.

He was left off Team USA’s 10-man roster for the Rising Stars Challenge, but in fairness it was a loaded field of American first- and second-year players from which to choose.

Milwaukee was 7-2 over nine games since the last publication of the ladder, with DiVincenzo missing one of the losses and having his best performance in the other. He scored 19 points with eight rebounds in 30 minutes, hitting 8-of-14 from the floor and 3-of-7 from deep, in a loss at Indiana on Feb. 12.