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Chris Herring, ESPN Senior Writer
By almost any definition, New York Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo was among the NBA’s most improved players this season.
His shooting efficiency metrics reached career-best levels, as did his scoring, which jumped from 9.4 points per game a season ago to 15.5 points this season. He drained a franchise-record 283 triples — only Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic finished with more — nearly doubling the 150 3s he connected on during the 2022-23 campaign.
Beyond all that, he suited up and played in 81 of 82 games for demanding Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, logging a career-high 2,360 minutes in the process.
Still, DiVincenzo won’t end up factoring into the Most Improved Player award voting; it turns out he’s ineligible due to a caveat in the league’s rules, an NBA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
It’s been well established since last offseason that candidates for the major leaguewide awards have to appear in a minimum of 65 games to be eligible. However, for a game to count toward that total, players have to log at least 20 minutes of playing time.
DiVincenzo finished the regular season with 62 such appearances. The league allows for a tiny bit of leeway, giving players credit for up to two more 20-minute showings if they log between 15 and 20 minutes of playing time. But even with those tacked on, DiVincenzo — who played a whopping 52 minutes in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Bulls — comes up short, with credit for just 64 qualifying appearances.
DiVincenzo had 66 games in which he logged 19½ minutes or more — including four appearances that fell less than 30 seconds short of the 20-minute total — but the NBA doesn’t round up official minute totals.
CBS Sports first reported the odd statistical quirk, which the league confirmed would leave DiVincenzo ineligible for the award. DiVincenzo and the Knicks, who had already finished their media availability Tuesday by the time the story was published, weren’t immediately available for comment.
A couple of award voters, including ESPN’s JJ Redick and The Ringer’s Michael Pina, wrote that they’d planned to include DiVincenzo on their ballots before realizing they couldn’t vote for him.
DiVincenzo wasn’t even the only Knick who found himself ineligible after a huge year-over-year improvement. Teammate Isaiah Hartenstein, who, like DiVincenzo, saw his minutes increase considerably in December when he went from being a reserve to one of the team’s starters, also failed to qualify for the award despite playing in 75 games this season.
DiVincenzo and Hartenstein — who finished tied for fourth leaguewide in biggest increase in value over replacement player compared to last season — being ruled ineligible after getting bigger roles with their teams could prompt the league to revamp or loosen the award qualifications going forward.