You’ve heard the rumors, and now the signing is official — Luca Vildoza is a New York Knick. So what’s the deal with this 25-year-old Argentinian guard who’s played for prestigious Baskonia in Europe?

The recent interest in — and now, officially, signing of — 25-year-old Argentinian guard Luca Vildoza was met with much jubilation from Knicks fans. Vildoza’s heritage drew obvious comparisons to fellow Argentinian basketball player and Knicks legend Pablo Prigioni.

While Vildoza is not quite a Prigioni-level wizard passing the ball (and really, who is?), Luca combines creative passing with one of the most important skills for a guard to have in the modern NBA — pull-up shooting. Vildoza, who had a 58.7% true shooting and a 54.9% effective field goal percentage in 32 games with Baskonia in the 2020-21 EuroLeague season, doesn’t jump off the Basketball-Reference page, with a meager 10.1 points per game and 3.4 assists per game.

But the efficiency metrics and per game stats do not tell an accurate story when it comes to the Argentine. Vildoza’s combination of pull-up shooting and creative passing makes him the epitome of a modern player. His off the bounce shooting is what attracted NBA teams to him, but Vildoza is not a chucker, nor does the ball stick as he tries to isolate too much — Vildoza makes quick decisions with the ball, either initiating offense himself or giving the ball up to teammates. Vildoza is a combo guard, capable of playing both on- and off-ball. Luca’s versatile skill set allowed Baskonia coach Duško Ivanović to play him alongside Pierriá Henry, another point guard, and to handle primary ball-handling duties when Henry sat. I think this is likely his role at the NBA level — a combo guard who can handle primary initiation duties at times.

Vildoza shot 37.6% from deep on a .549 3-point attempt rate, with a large volume of pull-ups. Aggression is not a concern for Vildoza — if given ample opportunity to shoot, he’ll take the shots. Vildoza is very comfortable pulling up off PnR — he did that a lot this season with Baskonia, and this will likely be where he gets the majority of his shots in the Knicks offense.

Vildoza’s pull-up shooting range is well beyond the NBA 3-point arc, too.

The pull-up shooting is the skill that Vildoza’s NBA career is going to be based on — if he can warp defenses with his shooting out of PnR for the Knicks like he did for Baskonia, it’s going to help to unlock his creative, high-level passing. If the shot translates, and I firmly believe it will, pairing Vildoza with a high-level PnR roll man like Obi Toppin or Mitchell Robinson could create high-level offense for the Knicks.

Vildoza is a crafty, willing, and unorthodox passer. If Luca believes he has a window to an open cutter or shooter, he’ll fire the pass to the open player. Vildoza likes putting plenty of mustard on skip passes to the corner out of the PnR, as well as pocket passes to the roll-man, or a popping big on a pick-and-pop. His creativity is, dare I say it, almost Prigioni-esque.

He’s not afraid to punish a defense he thinks isn’t paying attention, either.

Vildoza complements his on-ball pull-up prowess and creative passing with nice off-ball movement and shooting. Baskonia regularly ran him off screens for catch-and-shoot opportunities, as well as using him as a catch-and-shooter off drive-and-kicks. Vildoza’s off-ball game allowed Baskonia coach Duško Ivanović to play him alongside Pierriá Henry, another point guard.

Vildoza also likes this move — a pump-fake, dribble, into a side-step three. This is a pretty high-level move that lets Vildoza get clean shots in the face of closeouts.

This baseline out of bounds play that Baskonia runs can be placed straight into the Knicks’ offense for Vildoza.

A creative way for the Knicks to potentially use Vildoza is to use him as a screener on an inverse pick-and-roll for Julius Randle. While Vildoza was not used like this by Baskonia, his shooting should play well off of Randle, similar to this clip, where Randle runs the inverse PnR with Immanuel Quickley, potentially unlocking some high-level offense for the Knicks.

A potential bench lineup featuring Quickley, Vildoza, and Alec Burks could allow the Knicks to run a high-octane offense with the reserves — three high-level shooters, off the bounce and off the catch, is a hard ask for defenders. Luca's combo of shooting off the bounce with potential movement threes after running off screens means he can potentially play alongside other ball-dominant players like Randle, Barrett, or Rose, as well as keep the offense afloat when he is the primary.

Vildoza could potentially be either a replacement or insurance for Burks, if Burks’ level of play has increased his free agent market to the point where the Knicks get outbid. Vildoza could easily slide into the offensive role that Burks has had this season, and what Vildoza lacks in size, he gives back in terms of potential playmaking and off-ball/movement shooting compared to Burks.

The true swing skills for Vildoza offensively are his handle and burst getting downhill into the paint. I wonder if it’s going to be good enough to get by NBA-level defenders, largely because there were times in the games I watched where he struggled against EuroLeague defenders. There were times when he would lose the dribble executing a simple move on a drive, and even when the big would get switched onto Vildoza, he could rarely turn the corner and get an easy layup. While the .549 3PAr is a positive when it comes to showing his aggression in shooting, it is also perhaps an indictment of his capacity to drive and finish at the rim. That is also confirmed by Vildoza’s .279 free throw rate, well below EuroLeague average in 2020-21. Luca often struggled to finish at the rim when he did drive into the paint, and those struggles will likely only be magnified at the NBA level.

When Vildoza did get into the paint, he often quickly and accurately found a good kickout.

Again, the pull-up shooting is the “base” skill — if defenses are forced to respect Luca’s deadly pull-up shooting, that will open easy driving lanes, but when NBA defenses move to take away that shot from Vildoza, will his handle and burst be good enough for him to counter that and potentially get to the rim? Certainly, Vildoza will see less doubles out of the PnR in the NBA than he did with Baskonia, and that combination of passing and shooting could alleviate potential struggles with his burst and handle. A true positive for his driving, however, is that he does add that same creativity in his passing to it.

Defensively, Vildoza is a smart, attentive defender with good hands, and while he knows where to be and when to be there defensively, he likely lacks the lateral quickness and the size to stay in front of high-level NBA ball-handlers, and would certainly struggle defending the likes of Ja Morant or De’Aaron Fox. While Vildoza came second in steals in the ’20-21 EuroLeague season, I did see him being unable to stay in front of some EuroLeague guards. The upside to Vildoza’s defense — his cleverness and good hands (again, second in steals in the EuroLeague this season) — appear more off-ball.

Overall, I can see Vildoza’s combination of effort, IQ, and good hands making him a net neutral (or even slight positive) defender, even with concerns about keeping up with NBA ball-handlers. Certainly Vildoza will have a better chance keeping up with bench guards, and his attentive, active off-ball defense means the Knicks could get away with not placing him against the other team’s point guard.

If Vildoza’s on-ball defense is at an acceptable level, and if he can get into the paint regularly and finish at an OK clip, he could be a potential starting point guard for the Knicks next year. If those two skills aren’t quite up to par, he could fill a role off the bench as a combo guard, who could potentially close out games where he’s shooting the lights out. Either way, I comfortably project Vildoza to be a valuable member of the Knicks’ rotation.

Lastly, Vildoza is incredibly fun to watch. Luca plays the game with joy, a combination of fantastic pull-up shooting with creative passing. Here are two of my favorite plays of his from this season.

It appears, then, that the Knicks have gotten a playmaking, shooting point guard about to enter the prime of his career for little to no cost. If Vildoza can import his repertoire of passes and threes to the Knicks and give them some Vildoza magic, then he should be able to slide right into Thibs’ rotation, and, more importantly, into Knicks fans’ hearts.