Donte DiVincenzo ineligible for Most Improved Player despite missing one game / News - Basketnews.com

Donte DiVincenzo's season with the Knicks is overshadowed by his ineligibility for the NBA's Most Improved Player award due to technicalities in the league's rules.

Credit: USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect - Scanpix Credit USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect - Scanpix

New York Knicks shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo has shown significant improvement this season. However, despite his strides, he is not eligible for the NBA's Most Improved Player award due to the league's collective bargaining agreement rules.

Donte DiVincenzo

MIN:29.3PTS:15.56 (47.3%)REB:3.69As:2.66ST:1.33BL:0.45TO:1.38GM:80ProfileNBA2023/2024

According to the agreement, a player must have participated in at least 20 minutes of a regular-season game to be considered to play a match. However, there is a provision: for up to two games per regular season, if a player has played at least 15 but fewer than 20 minutes, they are still counted as having played.

In DiVincenzo's case, he played 64 games this season, meeting the threshold through a combination of 62 games where he played at least 20 minutes and the maximum two games where he played between 15 and 20 minutes, as confirmed by the NBA. The requirement to be eligible is at least 65 appearances.

In total, DiVincenzo appeared in 81 games but 17 of them did not count due to the number of minutes played.

DiVincenzo only missed one game this season due to hamstring soreness, which was a loss to Orlando on Feb. 14.

After averaging 9.4 points per game last season with the Golden State Warriors, he has increased his average to 15.5 points per game with the Knicks. He is shooting a career-high 40.1% from three-point range.

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