Raptors Talk Precious Achiuwa & Playing Steady Minutes On Both Ends of the Court

The Toronto Raptors need Precious Achiuwa to play solid defense and make the most of his limited offensive role moving forward this season

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors were never going to be able to keep Precious Achiuwa out of the rotation for very long.

This season hasn’t gone as anyone would have hoped for the 23-year-old forward. After a breakout second half of last season, Achiuwa has battled inconsistent play and injuries for virtually the entire year. It all came to a head last week when Raptors coach Nick Nurse decided he’d seen enough. After cutting Achiuwa’s minutes down to nearly single digits, Nurse opted to bench Achiuwa, taking him out of the rotation for two straight games.

But even with the growing pains for Achiuwa this season, the Raptors know he’s a crucial part of both their team identity and everything the organization wants to do going forward.

“When we’ve been our best or maybe when he’s been important to us – maybe those things are maybe related – he’s been one of our big, athletic defensive wings,” Nurse said following Tuesday’s practice. “We talk about being able to do so much because of having those guys and he needs to be a part of that.”

Toronto isn’t asking a lot from Achiuwa. It’s a “limited role,” Nurse said, but an important one. He needs to hold his own defensively and grab defensive boards. For a player who has prided himself on his defensive game, that shouldn’t be too difficult.

On Sunday, Achiuwa found his way back into the rotation against the Milwaukee Bucks and showed a lot of what the Raptors have been looking for. He forced Giannis Antetokounmpo into two turnovers, using his speed to beat Antetokounmpo down the court in transition on the first one before showing his strength to stand up the Bucks’ superstar as Antetokounmpo tried to beat Achiuwa with a post-move that ended in a steal for Toronto.

On the other end, Achiuwa’s offense role is even smaller. He took just three shot attempts against the Bucks, twice connecting on the pick-and-roll with Fred VanVleet before missing a catch-and-shoot three-pointer in the corner.

While Toronto hasn’t drawn up a ton of pick-and-roll plays for Achiuwa, he’s actually been pretty effective in his limited opportunities, scoring 62 points on 53 possessions, per NBA Stats. On a per-possession basis, that’s the second-best on the team trailing only Scottie Barnes on similarly few opportunities.

“He’s doing good. He’s gotta continue to find those pockets and just find what shots make sense for him,” VanVleet said of Achiuwa as the roll man. “Obviously we know what he can do above the rim but there's a ton of other shots that he can find out there and just watch Jakob and watch how he finds the creases and be able to roll through the pockets and find a little short float or jump hook.”

Achiuwa said he has been paying attention to Poeltl, trying to pick up the angles of the roll and navigate how defenses are guarding him when he is playing more of the traditional big position offensively.

All of it is slowly coming together for Achiuwa who has seen his offensive game progress compared to early last season, even while his defense has slipped.

Moving forward, it’s about putting it all together and playing consistently solid minutes. It doesn’t have to be flashy, as Nurse has acknowledged. Even if it’s just five points and five rebounds on a nightly basis with some quality defense, Toronto will be more than happy for now.

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