Donte DiVincenzo brings shooting, passing, defending and one more quality to the Timberwolves: an edge

Donte DiVincenzo hasn’t turned 28 but has been on quite the NBA journey, one that has brought him to Minnesota as the right fit at the right time.

How’s that fit? He hits three-pointers. He defends with tenacity. His playmaking ability has Timberwolves coach Chris Finch adjusting duties at the point.

He brings an edge.

“Can tell he really loves to win and loves to compete, you know?” center Rudy Gobert said after practice Saturday. “… He’s a straight winner.”

This is why the Wolves weren’t trading the best skilled big man in the game in Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks without DiVincenzo being part of the deal. Now they have someone who has absorbed everything he could from four other organizations, building himself up to be the player the Wolves need him to be.

The playmaking is a welcomed development for Finch as he manages point guard Mike Conley Jr.’s workload while breaking in rookie Rob Dillingham.

When DiVincenzo drives into the paint he has a world of opportunities. Hit a floater. Lob to Gobert. Find Jaden McDaniels cutting. Hook up Ant. “He’s been outstanding with the ball in his hands as a playmaker,” Finch said.

DiVincenzo was drafted by Milwaukee in 2018 out of Villanova, where he won two NCAA titles. He won a ring with the Bucks in 2020-21 while playing with an MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“It was fun,” DiVincenzo said. “I think he’s very unselfish. You see a lot of the downhills and the dunks, but you see a lot of easy, easy pick-and-rolls that he gives you, allows the guards to get downhill, allows the guards to free up to shoot. The unselfishness comes with him, not the spotlight.”

Then, boom, DiVincenzo was part of a four-team trade in 2022 that sent him to Sacramento, and from there he signed as a free agent with Golden State, where he studied under another former NBA MVP, Steph Curry.

“Learned a lot from Steph,” DiVincenzo said.” Moving. Just nonstop moving. Whether you get the ball or not, as long as you’re moving, someone is going to get a shot. I think that’s what I tried to take from him. Everyone says it’s the shooting, but it is really the movement.

“If you can condition yourself in the offseason or preseason to nonstop move, get to the spot where you want to, then it is just spot-up shots from there.”

DiVincenzo declined a second-year option for $4.7 million to sign a four-year, $50 million deal with the Knicks before the 2023-24 season. He reunited with fellow Villanova players Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart and played for former Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau.

Thibodeau comes across as a madman because of his defensive principles and for riding his starters, but Thibs often brings the best out of players. DiVincenzo bet on himself and cashed in with the best season of his career, averaging 15.5 points with 3.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

Boom again and now he’s with the Wolves. It’s a franchise he studied coming out of Villanova, a team he considered while a free agent. The trade of Towns means Finch is tasked with building cohesion into his altered core, but his bench is longer with a starting-caliber player in DiVincenzo.

It’s possible DiVincenzo would have grown into the all-around player he is today if he had remained with one organization. But he sounded grateful for having a little bit of an NBA walkabout.

“I think it’s the reason why I’m here today,” he said. “In that situation, if you are staying with a team you are developing within that organization, within that system, whatever that role is. Every team I’ve went to I’ve had a different role. And every team I’ve gone to, I’ve expanded that role. For me, it’s just to continue to work behind closed doors and whatever that role is or whatever that opportunity presents itself to take full advantage of it.”

DiVincenzo sees another available step in his development: going further in a title chase. The Wolves want to take that step, too. Seems like each can help the other.

“I went from a team that was one game away from the Eastern Conference finals to a team that was one or two games away from being in the Finals,” he said. “I don’t think it gets any better than that.”