Donte DiVincenzo‘s rocky start with the Timberwolves reached a new low when he was benched Tuesday night for the end of an overtime loss to Houston, writes Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post. DiVincenzo was an important contributor for the Knicks in their run to the playoffs last season, but he hasn’t been able to settle into that same role since being traded to Minnesota shortly before the start of training camp.
DiVincenzo is averaging 9.2 PPG while shooting 35.1% from the field and 32.2% from beyond the arc, a significant drop-off from what he did in New York. His playing time has been inconsistent, and he’s already been the subject of trade rumors barely a month into the season. He left Tuesday’s game for good midway through the third quarter and wound up with just three points in 15 minutes.
However, in his latest Substack column, Marc Stein reported that the Wolves tried for more than a year to land DiVincenzo and have no interest in listening to trade offers for him now.
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Frustrations in the Twin Cities continued to grow tonight as Sacramento staged a late rally and handed the Timberwolves their fourth consecutive loss. Anthony Edwards believes there’s a problem with the team’s attitude toward the game, tweets Chris Hine of The Star-Tribune. “We got up and everybody cheering and f—— hype,” Edwards said. “We get down again and don’t nobody say nothing. That’s the definition of a frontrunner. We as a team, including myself, we all was frontrunners tonight.”
- Jerami Grant is the Trail Blazers player most likely to be traded before the February deadline, Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report states in a mailbag column. Highkin picks Grant because at 30 he’s too old to be part of the team’s long-term foundation, but he’s still productive enough to help a contender. Highkin adds that Grant is a “known quantity” around the league, and his contract will become more reasonable once money from the new television rights deal starts coming in and the salary cap rises.
- Thunder coach Mark Daigneault should stop using rookie swingman Dillon Jones as a small-ball center, argues Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated. Stiles contends that Jones hasn’t displayed an ability to handle that role and advocates for those minutes going to Kenrich Williams.