Pacers Draft Options: Villanova’s Donte DiVincenzo

There’s something about Donte DiVincenzo. A high school icon in Delaware, a rabid Wildcat at Villanova, a slayer of Wolverines, and maybe the next Indiana Pacer…

April 2, Alamodome, San Antonio: With 17:38 minutes left in the first half, with Michigan leading 6-4, Donte DiVincenzo checks into the game for the first time. Five minutes later he makes his first bucket, a three, it’s 14-11, Wolverines. 38 seconds later, he makes a lay-up (5 points) Michigan 16, Villanova 13.

The story of DiVincenzo began 635 miles away from Indianapolis in Wilmington, Delaware at the Salesianum School. He was named Delaware’s boy’s basketball high school player of the year in 2015, garnering a bold nickname along the way: “The Michael Jordan of Delaware”. The rest of the nation didn’t exactly embrace that level of hype, DiVincenzo was rated the nation’s 37th best shooting guard and 124th best prospect overall.

His first year at Villanova was a broken one. Literally. It was only eight games before he broke a bone in his foot. Quickly redshirted, DiVincenzo healed and returned to terrorize his teammates in practices. That was the year the Wildcats won the 2016 National Title on a last-second walk-off by Kris Jenkins.

Nova still trailed, when DiVincenzo scored points seven and eight, on a jumper with ten minutes left in the first. Michigan 21, Villanova 16.

But it wasn’t until his sophomore year, and really his junior year, that DiVincenzo started to demonstrate his potential on the court. In 26 minutes a game as a sophomore reserve, he averaged nine points on 47 percent shooting. He showed flashes of scoring brilliance. Four times he’d score 19 points or better (he canned 21 against Mount St. Mary’s in the NCAAs and the other three all came against St. John’s, who must have really pissed him off somewhere along the way).

At the 6:07 mark the barrage begins: a three to give Nova the lead, followed by another, then a lay-up, then a dunk, then he assists on an Omari Spellman dunk. It was a 14-4 Wildcat run, DiVincenzo scored or assisted on all but 2 of those 14 points. He had 18 in the game. Michigan wouldn’t lead again.

Everything came to a head, of course, during the 2018 National Championship Game. Michigan entered the game as the significant underdog, DiVincezo made sure they stayed that way. His 31 point onslaught and the key 5 minute stretch at the end of the first half did the Wolverines in. It capped a prolific NCAA tournament where he averaged 15 points (with a marvelous 55/50/71 shooting splits), six rebounds and four assists all off the bench.

Donte DiVincenzo was an intriguing prospect before that game, but the championship performance turned up the brightness on the lights. The question after the game wasn’t if he would enter the draft, but how high would he go in it. That last part is still a question. Projections range from the teens to the late first round. So, maybe he won’t be there for the Pacers to select him.

But if he is…

Strengths

“They can put me anywhere on the floor,” Donte DiVincenzo said during his workout with the Pacers. “I can play off the ball with Vic, or on the ball and get him off the ball. And I can defend multiple positions.”

This is one of the strengths of Villanova’s motion system. Versatile players, like DiVincenzo, get to develop a well-rounded pallet of basketball skills. He has thrived off-the-ball, on-the-ball, starting and coming off the bench. He attacks with gusto, but he’s also a marksman from distance (he hit 103 threes this past season). He sees difficult passing lanes and has the ability to execute those passes. He moves confidently in pulses of energy on the court, which gives his defenders a beat of pause that typically offers him a window to zip past them.

Defensively he’s brilliant, or at least his technique is. He stays balanced, quickly gliding his feet to stay in front of his man. In college he had more speed than he had a need for, it only took a fraction of it to keep in front of his opponent. He’ll need to dip more into his reserves against NBA competition. He also doesn’t lack athleticism. Twice he stuffed bigger Wolverines in the national title game. He boasted the highest vertical leap (both standing and max) at the Draft combine among all players.

He impressed at the combine, not only in the physical measurements but on the court too, proving to be one of the rare guards who can stuff a stat sheet. If he has a bad shooting night, he can still contribute to the game.

Weaknesses

There aren’t many. His most glaring defect is that he tends to turn the ball over. He had 79 this past year, which is a lot. Most of those turnovers are sins of commission rather than omission, meaning he’s trying to thread needles that aren’t there, rather than just doing something stupid.

The second is perception-based: yes he had a brilliant Championship game, but can he do it night in night out. This criticism has some merits. 12 times this past year he scored in the single digits, while he scored 20 or above six times. While it’s an easy caveat to point out that he still contributed in other ways (and that Villanova wasn’t built to showcase a singular player), which isn’t bad, but he’ll forever remain a role player unless he can dependably make buckets.

Fit with Pacers

He’s being viewed as a combo guard, not strictly as a point or a 2-guard, someone who can have interchangeable roles with Oladipo. At the Pacers workout, Donte DiVincenzo said that Nate McMillan valued that versatility and his shotmaking abilities.

“With my ability to shoot the ball, I got to take advantage of that and not play into the defense. When I’m shooting the ball the way I can it stretches the floor and it opens up, just using an example from this organization, if I was playing with Vic it opens up space not only for me but for Vic too.”

If DiVincenzo can open up opportunities for Oladipo while punishing opponents for sagging off of him, that would be worth more than the 23rd pick. As far as this writer can see, DiVincenzo is the steal of this draft. He is someone who will be picked outside the lottery that is an instant contributor, as he was on two national championship teams, with a ceiling that soars above him and into the sky.

Next: Pacers draft options: Bruce Brown

And if he can do that, it’ll erase the sour taste he received from his previous trips to Indianapolis, when his Wildcats were twice visitors of Butler and were defeated both times by the Bulldogs.

“The fans here, they’re so hard to play against, because they get after [the visiting team], they make it tough to play,” Donte DiVincenzo said, before adding with a chuckle: “I’m hoping that if I land here, the memories are going to be a little different.”