Donte DiVincenzo showed basically nothing both in Summer League and preseason. I know, because I was waiting earnestly for him to do something, anything, and he didn’t. Unless you count airballing threes as “something”. So it didn’t really make sense for Coach Bud to bring him off the bench as the 7th man only a few minutes into the season.
He must’ve been showing stuff in practice that he hadn’t on the court, because he was, maybe not totally successful, but at least not a trainwreck like you would expect. He’s been solid. The low end of solid, but still solid. Way solider than a lot of rookies look, and definitely solider than the last few Bucks’ first rounders going back to Giannis.
One thing that I notice with him is he’s willing to use his athleticism at every opportunity. Some guys with monster combine stats, they don’t have the ability to use them in game. I had my doubts with DiVincenzo, but he really likes to jump around out there. He flies about three feet in the air every time someone pumpfakes with five feet of him. He’ll have to tone that down, but he can keep the alley-oop plays that are getting run for him. Imagine, the Bucks running plays! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.