Milwaukee Bucks: Donte DiVincenzo is turning heads to start 2019-20 season

Putting behind the injury struggles that derailed his rookie season last year, Donte DiVincenzo is starting to establish himself within the Milwaukee Bucks as he opens up his sophomore season.

Just like that, your Milwaukee Bucks have put together a three-game win streak.

After showing some worrisome signs and inconsistencies through their first four games, the Bucks have rattled off wins over the Orlando Magic, the Toronto Raptors and most recently, the Minnesota Timberwolves, to cool the concerns that came about from their two losses so far this season.

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That isn’t to trivialize the issues that have plagued the Bucks as they look to lay the foundation down in a year where there are title aspirations on the line, but they have certainly brought up some questions that many Bucks fans were not anticipating to ask this early into the year.

It just so happens that each of the Bucks’ three wins during this streak have featured the stylings of sophomore guard Donte DiVincenzo, who has been eager to establish himself after an injury-shortened rookie season last year.

Fully healthy entering training camp and preseason this season, DiVincenzo had been waiting in the wings to start the regular season, along with Sterling Brown, as Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer favored the pair of veteran wings, Kyle Korver and Wes Matthews, to provide minutes on the wing in the Bucks’ first four games.

Then, with Korver slated to rest for the Bucks’ tilt against the Magic, DiVincenzo got his time to shine, as did Brown, and the injection of youth with DiVincenzo seeing the floor has given the Bucks a different dimension over this run of games. And while it’s too early to draw any final conclusions over whether DiVincenzo’s a permanent fixture in the Bucks’ rotation, the 22-year-old has certainly looked the part of being a steady contributor on a couple of fronts, starting with his scoring ability.

DiVincenzo opened up plenty of eyes with the 31-point performance he put on in Villanova’s championship sealing-win over the University of Michigan, all of which provided the platform that paved the way for the Big Ragu to come to Milwaukee via the 17th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Suffice to say, DiVincenzo isn’t one to lack confidence when looking for his shot and that’s clearly been the case throughout his early run with the Bucks this season as he’s averaging 9.8 points on 14-of-30 shooting from the field (46.7 percent) and 9-for-16 from three (56.7 percent).

It’s that latter mark that’s especially encouraging as DiVincenzo hasn’t always profiled as a deadeye shooter during his early career and what little burn he received over his limited rookie season only called his shooting prowess into question as it related to realizing his fit within this Bucks system. And eight of DiVincenzo’s nine triples so far this year have come on catch-and-shoot opportunities, per NBA.com/stats.

Of course, DiVincenzo offers a little more scoring on the ball with his ability to create his own shot, but that’s also where we’ve seen some of his limitations, such as being able to finish at the rim through traffic. Case in point, DiVincenzo has converted 5 of his 9 attempts at the basket so far this season, a mark of 55.6 percent, and we saw glimpses of this during DiVincenzo’s preseason where he put down 10 of his 17 restricted area attempts (58.8 percent).

Switching gears, the Delaware native has consistently shown to be a viable, energetic defender within the Bucks’ scheme, something that stuck out throughout his 411 minutes during his rookie year.

Whether it’s navigating through screens at the point of attack, diving for loose balls or hustling hard to close out or contest at the basket, DiVincenzo’s balls to the wall-nature has been fully unleashed on the defensive end throughout all of his shifts so far in Milwaukee. And all of that has resulted in DiVincenzo logging the best defensive rating of any Bucks player so far this season at 81.9 points per 100 possessions.

For all of those reasons, it’s clear to see why Budenholzer has continued to give DiVincenzo plenty of run when healthy and DiVincenzo talked about the mutual trust both he and the reigning NBA Coach of the Year have with one another in his recent Q&A with The Athletic’s Eric Nehm:

"“Bud has a different relationship with the vets on the team, but I think my relationship with Bud is really good. And it’s not necessarily a super vocal thing. It’s more like an understanding. He knows what he’s going to get out of me every day and I know what he expects every day. There’s no misunderstanding between us. I can see how he rewards me by what he’s calling out or what the playing time is and stuff like that.”"

Ups and downs will surely surface for DiVincenzo as he continues to get more minutes under his belt and in part due to the type of scorer he can be on occasion. And there’s been a definite difference to when DiVincenzo has rattled off his scoring outbursts between going against first units compared to fellow reserves, just as his career-high 17-point performance in the Bucks’ win over the Timberwolves showed.

But no matter what side you stand on when it comes to valuing how and whether DiVincenzo can make a meaningful impact on this year’s Bucks squad, the Big Ragu is showing why that might be possible over time.