Milwaukee Bucks: Why Donte DiVincenzo is such a special player

Donte DiVincenzo’s off-ball scoring

As was earlier mentioned, DiVincenzo doesn’t necessarily have an abundant amount of chances to make stuff happen with the basketball (Milwaukee has plenty of other capable players to do that). His mere 16.9 percent usage rate speaks to that. His role as a catch-and-shooter has already been discussed, but he has other ways to do damage as well.

One of those ways is acting as a cutter. DiVincenzo averages 1.36 points per possession when cutting through defenses off-ball (which is actually his most efficient way of scoring in his arsenal). He has a similar awareness of sneaking by opposing defenders as he does when patrolling passing lanes on defense. He’s a maestro at snagging cheap buckets as a cutter (see the evidence here):

In terms of cutting quantity, DiVincenzo ranks in the top 30 percent of the league (according to Basketball-Index). As shown by the above clip compilation, he’s great at reading where his defender’s focus is. Within a second of him realizing his defender isn’t focused on him, he’s already making a beeline to the basket. Saying “within a second” is no exaggeration either; again according to Basketball-Index, DiVincenzo is one of the faster halfcourt runners in the entire league (he ranks in the top 20 percent of their “Off Ball Movement Speed” statistic.

The best thing about DiVincenzo’s cutting ability is how cohesive it is with his other previously discussed skill; his 3-point shooting. His tendency to shoot it from deep forces defenders to play him very closely on the perimeter. This is displayed by his 1.7 “3-point gravity score” via B-Ball Index (a stat which measures how strongly defenders guard him on the 3-point line), which ranks DiVincenzo in the top 29 percent of the league.

This makes him a very tough player to guard. If a defender fades away from him on the perimeter, he’ll likely pop an easy catch-and-shoot jumper; if they get too close though, he might slip by them for an even easier cutting layup (which he tends to make 71 percent of the time per B-Ball Index).

DiVincenzo is multi-faceted on offense, in terms of scoring the basketball. He can essentially be a threat to score from any spot on the court (without the ball even in his hands). Now, that isn’t to suggest the ball must absolutely stay out of his hands though; he has value with the basketball as well, especially when creating offense for others.