Ryan Arcidiacono is proving he belongs in the NBA

Ryan Arcidiacono smiled when he recalled what his college coach, Jay Wright, had told his father, Joe, back when Wright visited the Arcidiacono living room during Ryan’s high school days. Wright needed a point guard, but he told Ryan and his family that he thought Ryan would play in the NBA.

“Maybe that was just a recruiting pitch to get me to Villanova,” Arcidiacono said with a chuckle.

But Arcidiacono said it as he sat in front of his locker at Madison Square Garden Monday night, a vital part of a Chicago Bulls team that signed him to a two-way contract this summer. Not only is he on the roster, but Arcidiacono is a significant member of the Chicago rotation, expanding his game well beyond the limited expectations that led to him going undrafted following his senior season back in 2016.

“The thing that stands out with Ryan, he’s taken more charges already this year, I think, than anybody took last year in 82 games,” Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg said prior to Monday night’s game against the Knicks. “And those are just the type of plays that he makes, being a winning-type guy. You love seeing the success for a guy like that that approaches things the right way every day. He’s the most vocal player in practices and it’s great to see him having some success.”

That success includes the obvious talents the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player in 2016, when he led Villanova to a national championship, brought to the league. He worked relentlessly to improve his 3-point shooting, from 32.7 percent as a freshman to 39.4 percent as a senior. So far this season with the Bulls, he’s at 44.8 percent.

Combine that with a playmaker skill set — he’s at 28.8 assist percentage, against just a 13.5 turnover percentage — and that makes Arcidiacono valuable. But Hoiberg’s been using him as more than just a backup point guard. On offensive sets, Arcidiacono is often deployed alongside Zach LaVine, playing a spacer role up top, or even along the wing, a potential secondary distributor on sets featuring Jabari Parker as a point forward.

The questions about Arcidiacono revolved around his quickness, a worry when he faced opposing point guards, and whether his size would keep him from versatility beyond that. And yet, as Wright pointed out, those concerns were overblown before he even arrived at Villanova.

“I thought what was underrated about Archi as a player was how physically imposing he was as a point guard,” Wright said last month at Big East Media Day. “He was 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. He’s a stud. He was a stud football player so when I recruited him. I remember saying to his dad, ‘I think he can play in the NBA.’ And his dad was kind of shocked. His dad was like, ‘Do you really think so?’ I said yeah. I do. And I did.

“And it wasn’t just because of skill but as you know in the NBA there’s a certain amount of physical prowess you have to have. He had it and because it was mostly in his lower body you don’t see it because those long shorts cover it. But his butt and thighs are strong, powerful. And he fits in the NBA because of that.”

The body of work increasingly backs up Wright’s take on Arcidiacono. Playing mostly with the Windy City Bulls in the G League last year, he not only his 45.1 percent of his 3s, dishing out 8.6 assists per game, but he allowed opponents just 0.779 points per possession, per Synergy, on the other end of the floor, good for eighth in the league among 184 players with at least 200 defensive possessions.

That defensive prowess has continued, even as he’s graduated from guarding developmental projects to point guards like Chris Paul and wings like Taurean Prince. He’s allowing 0.864 points per possession this year with Chicago, giving the Bulls a 3-and-D option along with a point guard all in one.

“I know that I’m going to have to sometimes get cross-matched on twos and threes,” Arcidiacono said.  “Sometimes even fours. I try to pick up point guards and try to just bother twos and threes. But I definitely think that it’s been an evolution of my game.”

Knowing he’d need to keep up with a variety of players, Arcidiacono didn’t really have an offseason this summer, spending it instead working with Chicago’s strength and conditioning coaches, along with Hoiberg.

“He didn’t take any time off,” Hoiberg said of Arcidiacono. “He was around and just to see the amount of time that he put into his game as far as shooting the ball and you can see him gaining confidence with that.”

Arcidiacono says that the understanding that he belonged in the NBA came later. When he was in high school, all he focused on was the chance to play in college. Once he got to Villanova, he simply wanted to play well enough to earn a chance to play professionally—maybe overseas, he thought. And even as he excelled in the G League, it didn’t quite hit home that the NBA career so many of his teammates at Villanova have enjoyed was within reach.

Then came a familiar feeling, along with a court he knows well: opening night, Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. He played 28 minutes that night, hit three of his four shots, dished out eight assists.

“I felt really good about my play that game,” Arcidiacono said. “Knocking down a few shots. And getting to pass the ball. After that game I’m like, alright I can definitely play in this league.”

Just over a week later, Hoiberg had him on the floor against Atlanta for nearly 31 minutes, including the final few of the fourth quarter with the starters. And so Arcidiacono said he won’t even think about what comes next, focusing on the immediate task of getting better, game-by-game. After all, that’s worked so far. While his deal doesn’t become fully guaranteed until January, it’s clear that Arcidiacono has worked his way into the team’s plans.

That simply fulfills another promise Jay Wright made, this one to Fred Hoiberg.

“When we were talking to Jay Wright about him, he said, ‘I promise if you get this guy in your system he’s gonna make your team.’,” Hoiberg said. “And that’s exactly he’s done.”