The Pest That Was Promised: Can Luca Vildoza live up to Pablo Prigioni’s game?

The Knicks signed Argentinian guard Luca Vildoza officially on Wednesday. It’s hard not to think of a certain other Argentinian point guard the Knicks signed once upon a time — Pablo Prigioni. Can the keeper of the secrets provide a blueprint for Vildoza’s NBA success?

So Luca Vildoza is a New York Knick. Being Argentinian, and being a point guard, the 25-year-old’s arrival will inevitably stir up fuzzy-tummy memories of Pablo Prigioni’s magical two-and-a-half seasons in a Knick uniform. Delightfully happy memories. Memories headlined by Pablo’s signature play: taking other NBA players’ shit.

It’s 2013. You don’t own a single face mask. You’re an NBA player: one of 450. You’re an NBA point guard: one of 90. You’re getting minutes: one of 60. You are the best of the best of the very rare few. You’re in the Mecca, playing the Knicks. You’re in the back court, about to receive the ball. You’ve spent the summer honing your game: chess master pick-and-roll reads, blink-quick dribble combos, off-the-dribble pull-up jumpers going left, going right, maybe a step-back or two. A 35-year-old rookie you’ve never heard of — kinda small, kinda slow — is guarding you. Your brain, instinctively, hungrily, peruses a buffet of imminent potential buckets. You’re calling your own number. This fossilized YMCA-weekday-run looking chump is about to be in a highlight. A teammate inbounds the ba-what-the-fuck-just-happened.

Genius happened. Larceny happened. Pablo happened. A humble pilferer pilfered you. Your pockets are empty. Your basketball gone. Your ego bruised. A manipulation of angles. A wooing of time. A lightning quick flash of a wrinkly Argentine face. You got got by that old-man guile. You’ve been duped by the wiliest rookie in NBA history. Your coach is calling you a f&!*head. He took you back to school. He pulled your pants down. He pointed. He potentially said something in Spanish. He took your lunch. He ate your lunch. All in front of 16,000 happily delighted New Yorkers.

That’s what happened.

For Pablo, the inbounds steal was no regular season gimmick, no surprise gambit, no small-game specialty: Prigioni pulled it off playing for the Houston Rockets, TWICE!, against some guy called Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers, in Game 7 of the 2014-15 Western Conference semifinals, when he was 37 years old.

The sheer audacity, on that stage, against that opponent: could only be Pablo Prigioni.

In New York, besides being the poster moment of one of the NBA’s greatest ever steal-getters (yes, Prigioni is one of the greatest, which we’ll get to shortly), these patented Pablo heists tapped into some irresistible Knick narrative nectar: rookies are supposed to be vulnerable basketball puppies, but Prigioni had 17 seasons of professional point guard reps under his belt when he debuted in the NBA, making for a tasty dissonance of expectation and experience, which was a nightly delight to knowingly witness opposing players and fanbases process in real time. He was an extremely cerebral defender, a timeless favorite delicacy for Knick fans, who idolize intellect above all else. He was a point guard, a timeless positional fetish for Knick fans, who claim the position as a city native. He played on the best Knicks team by far this century, in 2012-13, winning 54 games.

Pablo Prigioni’s game — all irresistible charm and unassuming menace — was a perfect fit, in that season, for this city.

Vildoza’s arrival will again tick some of these narrative boxes: the team is winning, the fans still love defense, and the city still lusts after point guard play. As for the on-court comparison, there are similarities and differences. The similarities start with their passports: they are Argentinian, and Argentine hoops DNA dictates that they have a knack for playmaking on both ends of the court, with a nationally characteristic panache, an innate flair both in mindset and movement. Luca is a better athlete with a more versatile offensive game. Pablo was a pure point guard with generational basketball smarts.

Seriously, generational. 

Prigioni played 4566 minutes in his four NBA seasons. To qualify for Basketball-Reference’s all-time statistical leaderboard in steal percentage — the percentage of opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player when he was on the floor — players have to have 15,000 minutes under their belt. Chris Paul is 11th on this list at 3.21%, Maurice Cheeks is 12th at 3.18%, and Michael Jordan is 13th at 3.13%.

Prigioni — who played in the NBA from the age of 35 to 38 — has a career steal percentage of 3.1%.

Here are the list of players in NBA history to have multiple seasons of more than 2.7% STL%, logging more than 800 minutes, over the age of 35: Darrell Armstrong (twice), Manu Ginobili (3x), Jason Kidd (3x), Hakeem Olajuwon (2x), Scottie Pippen (2x), John Stockton (5x), and Pablo Prigioni, in all four of his NBA seasons. Only nine other players over 35 years of age have done it even once. There have been 432 seasons where a player that age logged more than 800 minutes in league history.

This season, the NBA’s top 10 players in steal percentage are: 1) Matisse Thybulle — 3.8%; 2) T.J McConnell — 3.4%; 3) Jimmy Butler — 3.1%; 4) Delon Wright — 2.9%; 5-6) LaMelo Ball and Facundo Campazzo — 2.8%; 7) Ricky Rubio — 2.7%; 8-10) Draymond Green, Jrue Holiday, and Raul Neto — 2.5%.

None of these top 10 are over the age of 31. 

While I’m not (quite) saying that Prigioni was every bit the point of attack defensive pest that John Stockton was, or that he was robbed of any DPOY hardware, or that he was some kind of HOF point-god who got to the league a couple of years too late; I am saying our mythologizing of The Pest is totally legitimate and warranted. The man was ferocious, he was special, and he was armed with feather-light fingers.

In 2012-13, he played in 78 games, started 18 of them, and per Cleaning the Glass, in 16 minutes per game, had the best net rating on the team at +7 points per 100 possessions, an 88th percentile impact. In 11 playoff games that season, logging 21 minutes per game, his net rating soared to +23(!) points per 100 possessions, a 94th percentile impact. He also kicked his steal percentage up to a masterful 3.4% in the postseason. The Pest’s gonna pest when the lights are brightest.

What’s this got to do with Luca Vildoza? Well, the comparisons are inevitable, really. But talking about and remembering Pablo is also in and of itself a very healthy habit. For example. Here’s a fun Pablo Prigioni fact:

He led the Spanish ACB in steal percentage in 2011-12, playing for TD Systems Baskonia, just before moving to the Knicks, with a 3.7% swipe rate.

Which is interesting because of this fun Luca Vildoza fact:

He was third in the ACB in steal percentage this season, playing for TD Systems Baskonia, just before moving to the Knicks, with a 3.8% swipe rate.

Now, I don’t know about you and your now dangerously bulbous emojified eyeballs, but me and my now dangerously bulbous emojified eyeballs know a statistical prophecy when they see one, and this is a textbook Pilferer’s Prophecy. A classic Pest That Was Promised situation. The numbers and the nationalities and the New York Knick masses demand Luca Vildoza follow in the sacred tip-toeing footsteps of the truly genius Pablo Prigioni: the greatest pest this city has ever seen.