NBA Daily: Ryan Arcidiacono Keeps Pushing On

All of a sudden, things are looking up for Ryan Arcidiacono, the Chicago Bulls’ scrappy two-way point guard.

After spending most of the season with Chicago’s G-League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls, Arcidiacono is in the midst of his longest extended run over his two-year professional career. With the Bulls well out of the postseason picture, young assets like Arcidiacono have been afforded the opportunity to finally play consistent minutes.

For players like Cristiano Felicio, who signed a four-year deal worth $32 million last summer, these end-of-the-season changes ultimately come with very little on the line. But in Arcidiacono’s case, he might be playing for his next contract — in Chicago or elsewhere. To his credit, the 24-year-old floor-runner has impressed head coach Fred Hoiberg since he joined the Bulls for good in mid-March.

“When you look at Ryan, what he’s doing for us,” Hoiberg recently said. “He’s making big plays, most of it with his toughness. Defensively, I thought he really got us going the other night with his hands, got deflections, gets into bodies, takes charges.”

Those type of non-box score observations may not impress the casual onlooker — but for a team trying to rebuild a losing roster, the little things can speak loudly. Standing at 6-foot-3, Arcidiacono is the first to admit that he’s not the NBA’s most athletic specimen. Still, he knows that his hard-working, team-first attitude has the potential to keep him on the map.

“I mean, I’ll go anywhere,” Arcidiacono told Basketball Insiders. “Hopefully [the Bulls] see the value over time — I’m not going to wow you with athleticism, but I think I can wow you with my work ethic every single day in practice.

“When I’m on the floor, I’m not gonna mess up. I’m just gonna be a solid guy on the court that’ll keep everybody together and playing hard.”

His whatever-it-takes mindset has fueled him through both collegiate successes and professional speed bumps — but all the same to him, Arcidiacono just keeps pushing.

Arcidiacono earned the honor of Most Outstanding Player during Villanova’s 2016 tournament-winning run, but he still went undrafted nonetheless. Following a year with the Austin Spurs, Arcidiacono was ready to make the jump overseas. But when JuveCaserta were denied entry into Italy’s top league, Serie A, the former collegiate standout looked local once more.

Arcidiacono was then scooped up by the Bulls for Summer League and turned enough heads to earn one of the much sought-after two-way contracts.

“Luckily, I played Summer League last year with the Bulls and played well enough to get a two-way contract,” Arcidiacono said. “I think that’s a step in the right direction, hopefully, for my NBA career. I think that’ll happen if I just keep working hard and keep putting my best foot forward, and I think I did that this year. This is just another step in hopefully a long career playing basketball.”

Two-way players are given a maximum of 45 days with their parent NBA franchises. Once the 45-day threshold has been met, teams must decide between converting their two-way contract into a standard deal or sending them back to the G-League. In Arcidiacono’s case, he’ll fall short of that mark this season — but he’s appreciated his chance to develop at both levels. Over two seasons in the G-League, Arcidiacono says he’s learned a whole lot about what it takes to be an NBA-worthy point guard.

“Just going through one year in Austin, learning how to play at the NBA level, within the systems and where to read plays,” Arcidiacono told Basketball Insiders. “I think our head coach, Charlie Henry, for the G-League this year, did a great job helping me develop with Jannero Pargo. So on a daily basis, kinda talking me through the reads on offense and what we’re truly looking for — he put the ball in my hands and let me make some plays.”

That’s putting it lightly, however, as Arcidiacono absolutely tore up the G-League this season.

In 37 appearances with Windy City, Arcidiacono averaged 13.8 points, 8.6 assists and five rebounds on 45.1 percent from three-point range. On top of that, Arcidiacono led the G-League in minutes per game (39.5) and his three-point percentage and assist tally ranked second and third-best overall, respectively. Any way you slice it, Arcidiacono has exceeded expectations in the G-League, a nice resume booster at the very least.

As far as he’s concerned, Arcidiacono doesn’t know if he’ll be back with Chicago next season — but he knows that these late-season minutes are a crucial opportunity to impress every franchise.

“It’s not just the Bulls that are watching, it’s every other team in the NBA,” Arcidiacono said. “You have to go out there and play hard, show them I can compete at this level, that I can defend at this level and that I can make some open shots when I take them.”

Naturally, Arcidiacono was present at the Final Four earlier this month, more than happy to cheer his former teammates through a tough gauntlet against both Kansas and Michigan. And although he says it was a little strange to be on the other side of the curtain for once, he enjoyed it all the same.

“It was cool [being in the stands] — it was my first time going to a Nova game since I graduated, so it was definitely weird,” Arcidiacono said. “But I loved every second of it and I’m just so happy they won. I know they came through Boston, so it’s cool to be here for my first time in this arena, they just won here recently and then won a national championship.”

Rather quickly, Villanova could have some serious representation at the professional level for the indefinite future. Of course, that list begins with four-time All-Star Kyle Lowry and stretch forward Dante Cunningham, but that’s not all. Darrun Hilliard, who graduated in 2015, is currently a two-way player within the Spurs’ organization and just led Austin to a G-League championship this week. Daniel Ochefu went undrafted with Arcidiacono in 2016 and currently plays for the Reno Bighorns, but he played 19 games for the Wizards last year.

This season, Arcidiacono was joined by promising rookie Josh Hart — whom the Lakers scooped up with the No. 30 overall pick in 2017 — and they’re set to add even more in two months. But this two-way standout is excited to potentially compete against his friends and former teammates, no matter where they end up.

“Mikal [Bridges] should be a Top-10, Top-15 pick. Donte [DiVincenzo] had a great last few weeks of the season and really put himself in a good position, whether it’s this year or next year,” Arcidiacono told Basketball Insiders. “And I think Jalen [Brunson] is going to be an NBA player for a long time — so they’re all headed in the right direction.”

But after two long, demanding seasons, Arcidiacono is certainly headed in the right direction himself — and if all else goes to plan, even if it’s not in Chicago, he’ll be sticking around as well.