The Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves begin the Western Conference Semifinal round on Tuesday in Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games as the Warriors took seven games to beat the Houston Rockets.
It's a No. 6 vs. No. 7 seed battle with Minnesota having home court advantage. However, there are plenty of storylines in this series.
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert is always fun. Jimmy Butler facing the Timberwolves - a team he spent nearly two years with - is another interesting wrinkle. And one that might be forgotten is Donte DiVincenzo, who spent one year with the Warriors before going to the New York Knicks.
DiVincenzo spent the 2022-23 season with the Warriors and played in 72 regular-season games but decided to leave Golden State that summer.
Why didn't the Warriors keep Donte DiVincenzo?
DiVincenzo signed a two-year deal with the Warriors ahead of the 2022-23 season. But the second year of the contract included a player option.
That led the sharpshooter to decline the $4.7 million option and test free agency, and it worked out well. He signed a four-year deal worth $50 million to join the New York Knicks, so it was a massive payday for DiVincenzo.
Now, it wasn't that the Warriors didn't want to sign him. They did, and Stephen Curry was instrumental in DiVincenzo signing with the Knicks, per Anthony Slater and Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Furthermore, DiVincenzo himself didn't want to leave, although the Warriors were not able to compete with the free agency market that emerged for DiVincenzo.
“I didn’t wanna leave,” DiVincenzo said, per Katz and Slater. “It was a great situation.”
The most the Warriors could've offered him was $5.4 million, a far cry from what he got from the Knicks.
Now, he is a key component on the Timberwolves, and he was one of multiple players involved in the three-team trade with the Knicks, Timberwolves and Charlotte Hornets that saw Karl-Anthony Towns go to New York and Julius Randle and DiVincenzo go to Minnesota.
Now, DiVincenzo faces off against the Warriors in the postseason, with the winner going to the Western Conference Finals.
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