Knicks sign former Villanova standout

The Knicks made a pair of roster moves on Friday, announcing that they’ve waived center Dmytro Skapintsev and signed free-agent point guard Ryan Arcidiacono.

Cutting Skapintsev was necessary in order to open up a spot for Arcidiacono since New York has a full 21-man roster. Skapintsev, who signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the team last month, figures to end up playing for the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate.

As for Arcidiacono, the veteran guard has spent most of the past two seasons with the Knicks, appearing in 10 games for the team in 2021-22 and 11 more in 2022-23 before he was sent to Portland in February’s Josh Hart trade. The Trail Blazers subsequently waived Arcidiacono in April.

According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, the Knicks were reluctant to include Arcidiacono in the Hart trade and only did so in order to satisfy salary-matching rules. Arcidiacono is the fourth Villanova player on the roster and is known to be particularly close with Jalen Brunson, Begley adds.

In 237 career regular-season games with the Bulls, Knicks, and Blazers, Arcidiacono has averaged 4.4 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per night, posting a shooting line of .424/.373/.807.

It’s unclear if Arcidiacono’s new contract with the Knicks includes any guaranteed money, but he has made the regular season roster despite being on a non-guaranteed deal in each of the previous two seasons, and he has a path to a 15-man spot this fall. New York is only carrying 12 players on guaranteed contracts, with DaQuan Jeffries, Isaiah Roby, Duane Washington, Jacob Toppin, and Charlie Brown Jr. on non-guaranteed deals.