Donte DiVincenzo Is Still Crucial For Minnesota…

Donte DiVincenzo Is Still Crucial For Minnesota…

Last season was a weird one for Dante Devanchenzo. He went from a playoff hero in New York to a playoff villain in Minnesota. And in between that, we saw the good, bad, and the ugly of his game as well. Coming off the back of that huge playoff run as a sharpshooter with the Knicks, Devenzo shot just 32% from three over the first 25 games of the season after his trade to Minnesota. But over his final 37 games, which did include a month-long injury, he shot 44% on super high volume. And just when you thought he’d found his rhythm with Minnesota, he plummeted back down to under 32% in a horrible playoff run where he became close to unplayably bad. Now, obviously, some of those numbers can be explained away with shooting luck, but I think we learned last season that Deven Chenzo thrives in very specific ways, and the Wolves are a much better team when he is thriving. So, they need to lean into those specific ways next season to really maximize their potential as a team. First of all, they’re going to have to actually use him full-time as the shooter that he is because Devenenzo as a point guard last season just didn’t work. They kind of forced him into that role a ton and he’s just too turnoverprone and not a good enough playmaker to stick the ball in his hands and let him run the offense and I think that really hurt his effectiveness as a pick and roll ball handler. Last season he scored just 0.84 84 points per possession and turns it over on over 20% of his 129 pig and roll possessions. And it’s no surprise really. He’s a shooter. He’s not supposed to be trying to get downhill off a ball screen and make plays for himself or others. The more Minnesota use him in that way, the more his flaws start to hurt them as a team. Playing as a lead guard even hurt his shooting. He wasn’t a terrible pull-up shooter in general. He made a hair over 36% of them last season, but he did struggle when being asked to self-create as a point guard type player. Coming off a pick and trying to find pockets of space for pull-up jumpers just isn’t really his game. And he had to do it a lot last season. Even if he does curl off ball straining actions and into space, it’s just not a valuable shot for someone who really makes his money as a high volume catch and shoot guy. We’re talking about a player here who has made over 40% of his catch and shoot looks on over 300 attempts in what we would consider a down season compared to his final year in New York. And he even made 38% of his catch andoot jumpers in what was a seriously bad playoff run for him individually. And as that catch andoot weapon and that catch andoot weapon only, he makes so much sense on this Minnesota roster. But again, Dven Chenzo is best used in very specific ways in that offball role depending on who is facilitating for him. When he’s playing off Anthony Edwards, the ideal place for Devenzo is in the corner. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a helpful outlet on the wing when his man shifts across to help on Ant’s drives. I mean, the kind of player one pass away from Ant is always going to be more helpful if they can shoot quick trigger shots when the defense does swarm Edwards. But Edwards’s best trait as a playmaker is collapsing the defense in the paint and then finding the corner. That’s where you need a shooter like Dvenenzo to help him the most. If Ant is coming off ball screens in the middle of the floor, he’s going to draw multiple defenders off the pick. And crucially, the low man coming off the corner to help at the rim or on the roll man. And the Wolves need to make sure it’s Deven Chenzo that the low man leaves as often as they can. If Ant gets a runway going downhill, those lowman defenders have to tuck in to provide cover in the paint. Ant is a fantastic corner finder on the drive. And Dan Chenzo shot almost 42% from the corners last season. So he’s the guy you want receiving those passes. And those corner shooting pockets open up even more for him when Ant is attacking from the side of the floor. That’s when he can really bend the defense away from Devenenzo when he’s running this empty side pick and roll. Look at how the defense forms this wall in the paint behind the two on the ball and how much space that gravity opens up for Dvenenzo in the weak side corner. They’re just not getting this same payoff from Ants drive and kick playmaking from other players on Minnesota’s roster. Like there’s a lot to like about Jaden McDaniels and his offensive game, but converting on defenses collapsing in on Ant by making corner threes isn’t one of them. So when Ant finds himself surrounded by all of these helping defenders, McDaniels is there as just a 33% corner three-point shooter. And often rotating with McDaniels in the corner on those drives is Julius Randall, who made just 27% of his corner looks last season. That’s why it’s so important for Devenzo to really live in those corners and why he is a really great fit alongside Anthony Edwards if he does. So for Ant, Devenenzo boosts his game from the corners. For Julius Randall, who’s going to eat up a bunch of on ball usage as well, Dvenenzo’s real estate should be above the break. Because what Randall does better than anybody on this Timberwolves team is force mismatches inside the ark and force defenders to rotate off above the break shooters. Randall creates this specific look for Dancenzo a ton and that’s just as valuable a shot as the corner look that Ant creates. If Randall gets his man on an island at the elbow, the second defender is often forced to help. And if Dvenenzo is getting these shots regularly, he’s going to kill defenses. Now, I think what separates him here from a lot of standstill shooters is that Dvenenzo is a super smart space hunting shooter. And being able to subtly relocate as a shooter is a really underrated skill. Like when Randall draws that second defender at the elbow, this drifting movement is so important to make this close out longer and harder to complete. Again, this isn’t a niche still, but it is a really important one for a player like Randall. He’s going to draw these bodies, but this movement from the shooter makes that pass a viable one. That’s why Dven Enzo works so well with Randall up above the break. And if teams don’t want to send that player to double from the high side to get the ball out of Randall’s hands, he gets to go to work in single coverage. And that’s where he’s at his best. Again, all of this is where Dven Chenzo can be legitimately elite. He’s the perfect spacer for both Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall, but they need to use him really deliberately. Last season was too much free flow. They gave him too much rope within their offense, and it just felt like he hung himself with it too often. And if there’s one more thing that this Wolves team needs more of in general, but especially in terms of boosting Dante Devenenzo’s effectiveness, it’s running more set plays within their offense. This is one of the best movement shooters in the league, and the Wolves rarely dabbled with actually getting him moving off screens and finding off ball pockets of space when really that’s what he’s built for. When they did run actions for him, it usually resulted in a good look. Sometimes it’s something as simple as a big man setting a ball screen and then veering out of it and flowing into a pin down screen here for Dvenenzo on the wing with the big then rolling into the space behind. WBY here backtracks in help and ends up giving up a wide open jumper. That’s a quick hitter that is in their playbook, but we don’t see enough of when they’re struggling to create offense. Same goes for this fist exit set where Dven Chenzo curls around into the corner here off this exit screen while the screen and roll occupies the defender who would switch out onto Devenenzo. You can’t build an offense completely around these actions, but Dvenenzo would certainly be a better fit on this team if they ran them a little more often. they really get any more adventurous with their sets than that. But we have seen them run some more complicated flex actions where Chenzo will set a flex screen here for Edwards to slice into the paint which means the switch defender drops into ant space and Dvenenzo will come up off a pin down to knock off that trailing defender. We’ve also seen him running off flex screens himself. I love this action where it starts with a double pin down on the opposite side and then flows into that flex stream and another pin down now for Dven Chenzo to come across the baseline and up into a wing jumper. In terms of exotic play calls, that’s about all we saw for Minnesota’s premier movement shooter last season. And that’s kind of what we expect from Minnesota’s offensive scheme. But there is probably room to increase the volume of these kind of actions next season and really try and ramp up Dvenenzo’s elite offball still. Look, in totality, last season was not Dante Dvenenzo’s best one, but this is a really helpful player that Minnesota have here, and they just need to use him in a very structured and specific way to squeeze that helpfulness out of him. last season there was too much on his plate, but he could give them a really dangerous weapon going forward if he’s maximized offensively. If you enjoyed this breakdown, you can support House and Growls in the links below. If you can’t, you can always like this video or subscribe to the channel to see more breakdowns like this one. Thanks again for watching.

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