New York Knicks fans hoping Donte DiVincenzo returns to the team will likely be disappointed by the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
Ian Begley of SNY reported Wednesday that while the Knicks “would love to have” the guard back on the roster, any possible trade is “highly unlikely.”
“The Knicks would have to trade either Josh Hart or Mitchell Robinson to make a deal work,” Begley wrote. “They aren’t trading Hart. I don’t see how they can trade Robinson; if they did trade him, it wouldn’t make sense to get a non-big in return.”
DiVincenzo was a member of the Knicks during the 2023-24 campaign and helped lead them to the second round of the playoffs before a Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers. He was a key role player and averaged a career-best 15.5 points per game that season.
He also connected on a career-best 40.1 percent of his three-pointers while taking advantage of space created by opposing defenses collapsing on Jalen Brunson.
However, New York traded DiVincenzo and Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves before the 2024-25 campaign in the deal that brought Karl-Anthony Towns to the Big Apple. While DiVincenzo was an excellent role player, the opportunity to add a star like Towns to the frontcourt was surely too enticing for the front office to pass.
That DiVincenzo is on a playoff contender with the Timberwolves also makes a trade less likely.
Minnesota surely doesn’t want to give him up for draft assets like a rebuilding team would, and the Knicks likely aren’t going to part with someone like Hart who could fill his role on the Timberwolves in the Western Conference playoff race.
That is rather unfortunate for the Eastern Conference team, though, as Brunson, Towns, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby draw much of the defensive attention from opponents. That would create plenty of open looks from downtown for DiVincenzo, and he proved during his last stint in New York that he can take full advantage of those chances.
But it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen.