Photo: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press Photo: Brandon Dill / Associated Press Photo: Tyler Kaufman / Associated Press Photo: John Hefti / Associated Press Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

ORLANDO — Eric Paschall had just toured the basketball facilities at Florida in spring 2015 when he sat down to discuss his options with his father, Juan.

The Gators offered almost everything Paschall, the reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year at Fordham, wanted in his next school: a winning tradition, an alumni list loaded with NBA players, solid academics. But as Juan reminded his only son, “We had to get on a plane to come here.”

This was a deal-breaker for Paschall, who didn’t want to miss Sunday night dinners with his family in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Villanova, which he chose over such powerhouses as Kansas and North Carolina, was just a two-hour drive from his childhood home.

As Paschall emerges as a dark-horse NBA Rookie of the Year candidate with the Warriors, he must settle for FaceTime calls with his parents and three older sisters. Those who know him best believe that his family values — not only his combination of strength, quickness and basketball IQ — are a driving force behind a season that already has outpaced expectations for the 41st pick in June’s draft.

In an era rife with 19-year-old millionaires struggling to navigate life in the NBA, Paschall is a 23-year-old college graduate who has thrived as the face of Golden State’s mini rebuild. With Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, D’Angelo Russell and others sidelined with injuries, he has become the team’s unofficial spokesman.

As head coach Steve Kerr put it, “Eric doesn’t really seem like a rookie.” A deep-thinking introvert who considered philosophy the best of his three minors at Villanova, Paschall enjoys his alone time, heading to his apartment after practice to play video games and read articles on his iPhone.

This is a stark contrast from his on-court demeanor. Projected as a role player by draft sites, Paschall has built a reputation as an aggressive isolation scorer, averaging 18.6 points over his past nine games. Among rookies, he ranks first this season in points (323), second in scoring average (17 points per game), tied for fourth in rebounds (5.2 per game), fifth in field-goal percentage (50), eighth in free-throw percentage (80.9), and third in minutes played per game (31.3).

Photo: Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press

Paschall is also one of the Warriors’ more versatile defenders, matching up on point guards one possession and 7-foot centers the next. Golden State, which figured it had unearthed a draft-night gem when it signed him to a three-year, $4.2 million deal in July, views Paschall as an important long-term building block.

“Right now, he’s just scoring off raw talent,” forward Draymond Green said. “He really doesn’t know how to play the NBA game. As he figures out more and more the NBA game, how to get fouled, he’ll get better and better.”

In the lead-up to the draft, Paschall hardly harbored designs on Rookie of the Year. His goal was to be a longtime NBA role player. Though Paschall has relished scoring since his early days in church-league games, he keeps his focus on the subtleties — box-outs, screens, help-side defense — foundational to winning.

This traces back to his childhood in Dobbs Ferry, a town of 11,147 roughly an hour north of Manhattan. The only boy after three girls (Ellen, Eudora and Tia), young Eric learned that, to get his parents’ attention, he was best served taking care of his chores.

His father, Juan, a security manager at a club in New York City, taught him the importance of discipline. His mother, Cecelia, a social worker working with at-risk kids, offered a blueprint in compassion.

Each Sunday, Paschall dressed up to attend Union Baptist Church in nearby White Plains with his family. That’s where he met Donovan Mitchell, who, long before he became a standout with the Jazz, was Paschall’s car-pool buddy on long drives into Harlem for practices with their AAU team, the Riverside Hawks.

Photo: Courtesy Of Juan Paschall

The two bonded over a shared desire to prove wrong the big-city players who assumed Paschall and Mitchell weren’t as tough because they came from suburban Westchester County. By the time they were 16, Paschall and Mitchell were taking the subway in to play grown men on blacktops.

During those pick-up games, Paschall crafted the iso-heavy style that is now his signature. High-major Division I programs started to take notice. Even after Villanova, Providence and others offered him scholarships, Paschall kept his verbal commitment to Fordham, which had a perk more prestigious programs couldn’t boast: It was only 12 miles from his parents’ house.

“Family is everything to me, and I just didn’t want to be too far from them,” Paschall said. “That was definitely a big factor in my decision.”

After Fordham fired head coach Tom Pecora at the end of Paschall’s freshman season, he transferred to Villanova, which was still driving distance to Dobbs Ferry. While sitting a season under transfer rules, Paschall trimmed his body fat percentage from 16 to 5.

Two years later, he was a do-everything rotation piece for a Wildcats team that went 36-4 and won the national championship. After four players from that team were taken in the 2018 NBA draft, Paschall labored at times as Villanova’s go-to option, picking up offensive fouls at a high rate.

Photo: Tom Reel / San Antonio Express-News

Head coach Jay Wright avoided putting him in isolation situations because he knew diminutive opponents would bounce off the chiseled Paschall and trigger the referees’ whistle. While reviewing game film with his assistants, Wright often remarked that Paschall’s bruising style translated better to the NBA — a league where players have more room to operate and are asked to guard more positions — than the college level.

When Paschall heard 40 names called before his during June’s draft, Wright was so confused that he contacted some friends in the NBA to ask why Paschall slid. The overwhelming answer was that, with Paschall turning 23 little more than four months later, he didn’t seem to have the same upside as younger prospects.

“With the draft, it’s more about projecting guys than their actual production,” Wright said. “I think that can make it easy for teams to miss on someone like Eric.”

“As a 22-year-old senior, you’re the best that you’re going to be?” said Green, who went 35th in the 2012 draft after a four-year career at Michigan State. “That’s why a lot of GMs get fired. And coaches.”

When Paschall returns to his locker stall after games, he often picks up his iPhone to find a text or two from his dad. Sometimes Juan has pinpointed a box-out Paschall missed. Other times, Juan simply reminded his son to be more aggressive on the offensive glass.

Photo: Courtesy Of Juan Paschall

The underlying message, however, seldom changes: Paschall might be one of the biggest revelations in the NBA, but he still has plenty of room to improve. For a recent college grad living far from home for the first time in his life, Juan’s texts have come to represent a bit of normalcy at a chaotic time.

“He lives almost 3,000 miles away now, which can be hard for us at times,” Juan said. “But at the end of the day, he has a job to do. And right now, he’s making the most of it.”

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron