Donte DiVincenzo shows Knicks they don't need to trade for scorer

When Jalen Brunson limped to the locker room Tuesday night it represented the sort of hold-your-breath worst-case scenario for the Knicks. With the trade deadline coming at 3 p.m. Thursday and seeing Brunson injured might have triggered a need to find another scorer.

The Knicks have approached the deadline with the usual patience of this front office, working the phones and listening to potential deals. They've been putting out feelers and even smoothing over a long-simmering feud with Rich Paul and the Klutch Agency.

But the Knicks have not shown any panic, not even as the list of injured players has grown. And maybe even the wake-up call of Brunson limping won’t change that, the team holding its assets as close to their heart as they are holding their cards to the vest. And perhaps that comes with the assurance provided by Donte DiVincenzo.

When Brunson went to the locker room Tuesday, the latest test of Tom Thibodeau’s insistence that next man up is a reliable option, it was DiVincenzo that helped them avoid a disastrous collapse, scoring 32 points including eight of their final 10 points. And it was just the latest save for DiVincenzo.

After signing a bargain deal in the summer — four years and $50 million — he moved from the bench to the starting lineup when Quentin Grimes was struggling to fit. Since the team traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to obtain OG Anunoby, DiVincenzo has averaged 18.3 points ever since. In the five games since Julius Randle and Anunoby were sidelined his scoring average has ballooned to 27.8 points per game.

And if Brunson, who is listed as questionable with a sprained right ankle, has to sit out and help doesn’t arrive at the trade deadline, DiVincenzo might be the player the Knicks look to once again.

"I think recently I have been doing that, but that’s not my focus,” DiVincenzo said. “My mindset is he’s playing. I don’t question that at all, I’m not worried about him, and whatever the lineup is that we have, guys are in the NBA for a reason. Thibs has a blueprint for us laid out and a game plan. You follow that and everybody be aggressive and you’ve seen guys have big nights, so I’m not too worried about it.”

“He’s been big for us,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who also has stepped into the breach with Mitchell Robinson sidelined. “Just stepping up when we need him the most. Every game this season when we kind of need it, when we need somebody to step up, he was kind of there. So we have faith in him and he’s been stepping up big. Whether it’s the defensive end, offense, he can do it.”

That doesn’t mean the Knicks won’t pull off a move. It's just that they don’t feel pushed to make one happen. That is especially so because they already have pulled off a major deal five weeks ago that has helped lift them into a battle for the second spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks have kicked the tires on Bruce Brown with Toronto, Dejounte Murray in Atlanta and Jordan Clarkson in Utah. But the most likely scenario for a deal still might be if the Detroit Pistons come down on the price of Thibodeau favorite Alec Burks. Or the team could simply wait out a buyout of Kyle Lowry in Charlotte and count, counting on Lowry having enough left in the tank.

In the meantime, DiVincenzo has helped carry the team to stay afloat without the missing pieces. Asked though if he has thought about what he could do if his usage rate remained this high, he had no interest.

“No, and I don’t care, to be straight forward,” DiVincenzo said. “I want to win basketball games and I like playing with really good players. It’s as simple as that. I love to see when OG and Julius and Jalen are out there and all have 30 and I’m cool with it. As long as we win the game, I’m good.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.