NY Knicks: 3 reasons to be excited about Luca Vildoza

NY Knicks: What is Luca Vildoza’s potential?

Luca Vildoza is not the first Argentine guard to entire the association – He comes from a now storied line of players like Manu Ginobili, Pablo Prigioni, and Facundo Campazzo. Prigioni will always hold a special place in Knicks fans’ hearts for his inbound steals and creative passing. In some ways, the flashiness that was a part of Prigioni’s game shows up in Vildoza’s as well – just in different ways.

The NY Knicks are signing an exciting guard who is just 25 years old. Unlike Campazzo and Prigioni who came into the NBA after long storied careers overseas, Vildoza seems like he’s just starting to hit his stride. At 25 years old, he’s just beginning to enter his prime and has clearly taken big strides forward in his 2 most recent seasons with Baskonia.

I don’t want to pretend like I’ve studied Vildoza’s game for years and have an accurate read on his potential because I don’t. This is all coming from a few hours of watching tape, going through international scouting reports, coach interviews, NBA player comparison tools, Baskonia and Argentina fans shooting me DMs, and of course, my own eye test.

As I alluded to earlier, I love the fit of his pick-and-roll game and the NY Knicks’ offense. New York’s offense always seems to be at its best when the ball is moving in the half-court, and Vildoza is a willing passer. We’ve also seen how important getting penetration from the backcourt (Derrick Rose) can be in opening up room for the Knicks shooters.

Even more specifically to the fit with the Knicks, I LOVE his match with the 2nd unit. The 2nd unit that tends to run a lot of P&R and create exciting offense- Luca Vildoza fits right in with that group.

For the time being, this is likely just an insurance signing to fill up the roster before the playoffs. It also gives me the sense the team is getting a 25-year-old some familiarity with the Knicks organization in case there’s a longer contract on the table. He could be someone we see next season.

Vildoza certainly projects as someone who can play either guard position. There have been plenty of conversations from fans about the team’s “point guard of the future”, “what are the Knicks going to do at point guard in the offseason?” There aren’t too many options this offseason to make a drastic positive change at the position, even though many seem hell-bent on Lonzo Ball. I think the most likely scenario is that the team mostly runs it back with the same squad because, at the end of the day, this is a great team. The offseason changes don’t need to be dramatic.

Signing someone like Luca Vildoza gives them someone off the bench who can hopefully handle some point guard duties in a limited role. At 25 years old, there’s plenty of room to grow, and this has all the makings of yet another savvy signing from the NY Knicks front office.