NEWSLETTER
You can take that sigh of relief, the Chicago Bulls have signed point guard Ryan Arcidiacono to a contract extension!
Ryan Arcidiacono has signed a 3-year, $9M deal to return to Bulls, agent Joel Bell confirms. @ShamsCharania 1st.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) July 2, 2019
Jokes aside, the move here from the Chicago Bulls isn’t particularly surprising, and it is also totally acceptable. Arcidiacono has grown into something of a glue-guy for this team, and he holds a pretty respected stance among Bulls fans. Which is why, on June 24th, Chicago extended to him a qualifying offer, turning him into a restricted free agent, which clearly demonstrated their intent on keeping him around. Now, they’ve signed him to a deal that will.
Last season, Arcidiacono landed plenty of playing time due to injuries across the Bulls roster, and, honestly, he performed quite well given his role. For a quick refresher on how things went, it’s probably easier me to just share this snippet from our previous article:
Arcidiacono did see a major uptick in playing time last season, appearing in 81 total games (after only appearing in 24 the previous year) with 32 starts, but he averaged only 6.7 points per game with 3.3 assists. Nevertheless, the significant bump in game action came in a season with little depth and a lot of injury trouble. Still, Arcidiacono managed to make some flashy plays and demonstrate that he can be a useful facilitator off the bench.
After last season, the guy looks like he could have more to offer. The Bulls will continually look for shooting, and his ability to knock down shots from behind the arc could be a nice piece off the bench. Not to mention, he has the ability to just make the right plays when distributing the ball, and that alone has earned him more time on the court.
Through 21 games to begin the year, Arcidiacono shot 45.5% from deep on 4.2 attempts. He made just 31.8% of his triple attempts over the final 60 games on just 2.2 attempts (Dunn came back, Harrison emerged, etc.)
— Mark Strotman (@markstrot) July 2, 2019
As for the guaranteed contract, well, that’s something new for Arcidiacono, who first came to the Bulls on a two-way contract and then played with a standard one-year contract last season. Clearly, his work on and off the court was enough for the Bulls to feel comfortable officially locking him down, and Arcidiacono appears to recognize that.
Ryan Arcidiacono on finally having a guaranteed contract: "It’s a little bit a sigh of relief. It’s something I’ve been trying to work for and I think I’ve taken gradual steps to get to this position."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) July 2, 2019
The signing of Arcidiacono probably means it’s the officially the beginning of the end for Bulls point guard Kris Dunn (even though it feels like it started months ago). The Bulls now have Coby White, Tomas Satoransky and Arcidiacono locked in on the roster, and Dunn’s roughly $5 million owed this upcoming season could be some nice cap space to have right about now.
Indeed, yesterday, it was reported the team was trying to shop Dunn, and now it seems all the more reasonable that he will be dealt sometime soon.
As for Arcidiacono, he may not be playing a huge role on this team with the Bulls two new point guards taking the court, but he is ready to do whatever it takes.
Arcidiacono, on whether there's a role for him: "I’m going to work and support my teammates no matter what happens. I just want to win. Whatever I can to do to help our team win, if that’s play a lot of minutes or no minutes at all, I’ll be the best teammate I can be."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) July 2, 2019
