{"id":95693,"date":"2025-06-13T09:43:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/95693\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T09:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:43:20","slug":"knicks-lost-swagger-when-they-traded-donte-divincenzo-magic-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/95693\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks lost \u2018swagger\u2019 when they traded Donte DiVincenzo: Magic Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic Johnson thinks the Knicks need their swagger back.<\/p>\n

The Hall of Famer believes New York lost its toughness and edge after trading Donte DiVincenzo to the Timberwolves in the Karl-Anthony Towns deal, which he believes cost the team in the Eastern Conference finals against the Pacers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe swagger left the Knicks when [DiVincenzo] got traded, and they don\u2019t have that swagger again,\u201d Johnson said on ESPN\u2019s \u201cGet Up\u201d on Thursday. \u201cSee, they got nice guys, but they don\u2019t have tough, mean guys, and that\u2019s what Donte brought to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Donte<\/p>\n

Donte DiVincenzo with the Knicks in the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Johnson said DiVincenzo would have been a perfect answer to Indiana\u2019s depth and physicality, which seemingly wore out the Knicks\u2019 top-heavy roster over the six-game series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what Donte brought from the bench when he came on the floor, and New York Knicks fans loved him because he was tough, he was mean, but also he could score,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

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In his one season in New York, DiVincenzo proved to be a volume scorer when needed, with no better example than last season\u2019s second-round series against the Pacers, when the Villanova product stepped up to average 22.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists.<\/p>\n

DiVincenzo\u2019s role in that series was elevated with the Knicks ravaged by injury, but the shooting guard was a key offensive contributor all year, and he averaged a career-high 15.5 points in the regular season.<\/p>\n

\"Magic<\/p>\n

Magic Johnson said he thinks \u201cthe swagger left the Knicks\u201d after Donte DiVincenzo was traded. @GetUpESPN\/X<\/p>\n

And the tough, mean persona Johnson speaks of was on display throughout the season, with DiVincenzo never afraid to get into it<\/a> with opposing players and stand up for his teammates.<\/p>\n

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That didn\u2019t stop Leon Rose and the Knicks from dealing DiVincenzo and Julius Randle to the Timberwolves for Towns last offseason \u2014 a move Johnson seems to think was a mistake, even if New York advanced to its first conference finals in 25 years behind the duo of KAT and Jalen Brunson.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Knicks traded Donte Divincenzo to the Timberwolves as part of a deal for Karl-Anthony Towns. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201c[DiVincenzo] could get you 15 to 25 points when he came off that bench and they missed that, that contribution that he brought to the team,\u201d Johnson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson thinks the Knicks need their swagger back. The Hall of Famer believes New York lost its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,1591,372,113,376,563,938,304,2682,6,1136,191,3810,3806,114,760,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-95693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brunson","10":"tag-donte-divincenzo","11":"tag-indiana","12":"tag-julius-randle","13":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","14":"tag-kevin-durant","15":"tag-knicks","16":"tag-magic-johnson","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-knicks","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkknicks","22":"tag-pacers","23":"tag-the-knicks","24":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114675410828582064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}