Getty Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
For the last decade, the Golden State Warriors have found success thanks to the trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. But they haven’t been the only players putting in the work. Golden State has employed plenty of role players around those three.
This year, they brought in Donte DiVincenzo to be one of their lead guards off the bench. With the Warriors’ matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks incoming, DiVincenzo compared the leadership styles of Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“It’s fun,” DiVincenzo said. “It’s fun to come to work. When you have someone who has great spirit, great energy with them – you want to be around them, you want to spend as much time around them to learn from them. I’ve had that in both places.”
DiVincenzo spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career with the Bucks before he was traded to the Sacramento Kings at the trade deadline last year. During his time in Milwaukee, DiVincenzo emerged as a quality rotation player and even helped them during their title year in 2020-21 (although he got hurt just three games into the playoffs).
At the start of this year, DiVincenzo dealt with an injury that held him out for a few games, but since then, he’s become a fairly regular part of Golden State’s rotation. He’s appeared in 19 of the team’s 27 games this season and is playing 17.9 minutes per contest.
The guard is averaging 5.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game on 38.4% shooting from the field and 32.2% shooting from behind the three-point line.
DiVincenzo Compares Warriors to Bucks
Milwaukee and Golden State have taken home both of the last two championships, so it’s safe to say that DiVincenzo has been able to gravitate toward winning situations. And while the Bucks ended up dealing him, he now has a chance to win another ring.
Despite being traded to the Kings last year, DiVincenzo has yet to face off against his former team. But when asked about how he feels heading into the Warriors’ matchup with the Bucks, DiVincenzo said that he’s focused on helping Golden State win.
“I’m in a whole different city, a whole different organization, and my focus is here,” DiVincenzo said. “I’m excited to go play there for the first time, but my focus isn’t going to go away from what we’re doing as a team and what my role is, and my mindset for this team. I have bigger goals than just trying to win one game in the season.”
Jordan Poole Discusses Old Guard
As DiVincenzo continues to cement himself into the Warriors’ rotation, his teammate recently spoke about what it’s going to be like taking over as the new star of the Warriors. Poole told Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports that the team’s old guard isn’t just giving away their secrets.
“It wasn’t that these older players, people who have been in the game before, aren’t willing to give you answers. It’s like they’re just not gonna give them to someone who doesn’t care,” Poole said. “They put their hard time, their blood, sweat and tears, years of sacrifice, stress, so they don’t want to just give away their gems, the things that have made them so successful in their careers, to just anybody. They gotta know that you’re willing to go the extra mile. You’re willing to sacrifice yourself.”
