Meet Terrance Arceneaux

I have been waiting to write this article since his name first appeared on NC State’s board. I love Terrance Arceneaux. Aside from him having a cool last name, he’s a very good basketball player who still has a lot of upside, and it’s clear from some of the recruiting decisions that followed his commitment that I’m not crazy. Will Wade has forgotten more about basketball in the last 24 hours than I’ll ever know, and he’s just as high on this guy. 

Arceneaux is a 6’6 wing who is an excellent athlete, has some capacity to score the ball at all three levels, and is a dynamite defender. This is easily my favorite addition so far, and it’s one that figures to answer for a lot of starter minutes at one of the wing spots.

While he’s not an elite shooter, he shot 34% last season from three, which is more than enough to keep you honest. The junior wing went through some hot and cold stretches last year, but his shooting has took a big step forward from two underclassmen seasons. He was 12/25 in January, which is a completely arbitrary time window, but that was his best stretch of the season. While not the contested shot maker that Jerry Deng is, the rest of his offense is more impressive

The stronger points as a scorer come inside the arc. Arceneaux is an excellent two-point shooter. He shot 51% last year, but with a higher mid-range volume of mid-range shots, of which he made 46%. The Houston transfer shot 58% at the rim. Those are great numbers.

He averaged almost exactly 20 minutes per game and had relatively low usage during that time. It’s basically a guarantee that Arceneaux will step into a much larger role in Raleigh, so the obvious question is can he maintain or at least approach that level of efficiency with a significant boost in volume. Only the future knows, but the skill sets are really promising. 

He is, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, long and very athletic. One place where this shows is his ability to finish drives. His bag as a finisher is deeper than his volume of shots at the rim would suggest. He’s got some real touch getting the ball high off the glass and an impressive ability to hang in the air and finish around shot blockers. The man can jump and has impressive body control.

Here's Arceneaux in a snug empty-side ball screen. He can attack drop coverage, hang in the air, get the ball up on the rim.

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Pretty finish

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All of this comes together to create a scorer with decent upside. I don’t think of Arceneaux as a pick-and-roll operator like I would Tre Holloman, but this is definitely a guy you could use on the ball as a secondary creator with a score-first mentality. His ability to threaten the rim off screens and shoot efficiently from the mid-range could turn him into a pretty valuable weapon against drop bigs and teams that keep their rim protection around the paint. 

Arceneaux gets drop coverage out of the empty side ball screen, and he can make you pay for this.

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He could fit well into DHO actions a la what State did with DJ Horne or as an off-ball screener who can slip to the rim or pop out. Arceneaux isn’t the shooter that Horne was nor does he have the same short area quickness, but he’s a better finisher and he can absolutely create his own shot off the dribble. The step back is 100% in his bag. He’s very comfortable pressing a drop big off the dribble and then stepping back into a jumper. When it comes to the mid-range shot, I’ve always said that it’s not a place you want to live, but it is something you have to have in the bag, lest teams just repeatedly force you into it. This is especially true with how many bigs in college basketball can only play drop coverage, and it is one of the reasons Arceneaux could be really useful as a secondary creator. 

Arceneaux’s a compelling offensive player, but his biggest strength is that he’s an elite defender. The senior wing can guard the hell out of the basketball, but he also has excellent range in help, something that can be quite useful in certain lineups that are susceptible to mismatches post-switch. Switch-heavy teams often front the post and will roam or float a defender to double the ball if it comes inside. Arceneaux would be really good at this. This guy can fly around on defense and he obviously comes from a Kelvin Sampson coached team. He’s been well coached defensively and is not going to come in as a guy with physical ability that can’t get rotations right.

Arceneaux gets a jump ball out of an isolation

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Arceneaux recognizes he's got a 21% three-point shooter on the wing and stunts hard at the ball, causing a turnover.

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Arceneaux’s easiest fit is as an off-ball wing who can make an impact on the defensive side of the ball, space the floor, and attack closeouts. He presents that level of off-ball versatility and would be a dynamite addition in such a role, but there is more meat on the bone than that. The transfer wing has some juice as a creator. He’s not an elite advantage creator off the dribble, but as we’ve talked about already, he has the finishing and pull-up shooting chops to make defenses wrong. It’s become very clear that Wade is valuing length, shooting, and defense, and Arceneaux is all of those things with the potential to be even more than that.

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