Precious Achiuwa couldn’t believe his career-high in steals before Jan. 12, 2023 was just two.
“Two?? No chance,” Achiuwa said in the locker room. “I’m a helluva defender, no chance.”
The reason he was informed this was because on that very same night against the Charlotte Hornets, Achiuwa set a new career-high in the category with five. Much more to his liking, one would think. The record book and career numbers don’t lie, though, and Achiuwa is a player who averages 0.4 steals and 0.5 blocks for his career thus far. Contrary to his thinking, by no means is that an indicator of his defensive capabilities or exploits to this point.
In fact, when the Raptors put together their best defensive effort of the season in Sacramento against a Kings team that averages a league-best 119.7 points per game, Achiuwa was exemplary for the 28 minutes he was on the floor and yet finished the game with zero steals and zero blocks. It was fitting, really.
Upon checking into the game for the first time with five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Achiuwa picked up likely all-star Domantas Sabonis at the top of the key, fought through a Davion Mitchell screen to deny the switch onto Fred VanVleet on the right block, then stuck with Sabonis on a strong hand drive into the lane and forced a kick-out with seven on the shot clock. There was a breakdown at the very end of the shot clock that allowed for an open Kevin Huerter three, but in no way due to Achiuwa. His execution was clinical.
A couple possessions later, Achiuwa picked up Sabonis in the backcourt as the seven-footer brought the ball up the court and executed a dribble hand-off with Keegan Murray at the top of the arc. As VanVleet got screened by Sabonis, Achiuwa showed just high enough to deter a Murray three-point attempt and buy VanVleet time to recover, before switching back onto Sabonis. The Lithuanian tried a spin one way before a dribble, then another spin, but there was no evading Achiuwa. The ball squirms out of his hands as Achiuwa is ready to contest with verticality, and luckily drops into the hands of Huerter for a layup. More great defence with no statistical reward.
There were many team rewards that came later, but nothing that will individually be recorded unless you like scoring well timed vertical contests, lateral mirroring, and general positional excellence at home.
Anunoby deserves a heap of credit for his performance matched up with likely all-star Domantas Sabonis for significant portions of the night, as does Fred VanVleet and his perfectly timed snatches at the ball as a help defender, and the list goes on in a team performance that was a sight for sore eyes. Still, Achiuwa’s performance on the defensive end deserves just as much applause as the 19 points he scored on 9-of-12 shooting.
“He’s really done a good job providing rebounding, defence, and spirit, right?” Nurse said of Achiuwa’s play since returning from injury. “I think he's played tough, he's got up and down the floor, he’s been active, he's been strong. You know those things are very, all kinda complementary traits that we needed and I think they’re rubbing off a little bit.”
When Achiuwa had his individual struggles last season, he would remind himself and say, ‘I’m good.’ He has unwavering confidence in himself and so with the Raptors struggling to be the best version of themselves to this point in the season, Achiuwa has maintained that same belief in the team. He will tell you time and time again that this team knows what it’s capable of and that it’s just a matter of time before it all clicks together.
How impactful is he in actually making that vision a reality?
It really hinges on what he can bring offensively because there are barely any questions about his defence. For all the subtle ways he can positively impact a defence, noise plays a big part in his offence. On a night like the one in Sacramento, where he’s identifying seams in the opposing defence and attacking with vigour, his impact reaches peak levels and make him a no-brainer inclusion in the closing group for a game.
Through the all-star break of last season, Achiuwa was what would happen if a roller coaster moved just as fast uphill as it did downhill. You’ve got to just hold on for dear life and hope for the best and the solace of a paper bag at the end of it might not even matter.
The chosen method of exploration of his game has been to search far and wide, high and low, even if the prior research suggests there are places better left untouched. His physical characteristics are so unique that it is indeed worth finding out if the answer is no specifically for him. As he’s continued to refine his game, the ceiling of his game becomes even more tantalizing.
Watch Achiuwa now and there’s a driver easing through traffic well aware of his blind spots, thinking a step ahead in terms of which overtaking options actually create a faster route to the destination and which ones just waste fuel and annoy everyone around him.
“That’s my game, that’s kind of how I’ve always played,” Achiuwa said. “It’s just now you’re playing against bigger, stronger, more athletic guys, so, understanding body control, angles, stuff like that. Understanding that I can use my athleticism to get to the rim a lot faster depending on who the defender is. Also, angles, seeing what direction he’s moving, if he’s moving right then I gotta move left because he can’t move right and left at the same time.”
Achiuwa is shooting 72.6 percent within three feet of the basket this season, a significant improvement from the 61.4 percent mark he set last season. He’s recognizing the value of timing, pace, and place and this progress is all part of the evolution process that began last season.
Worth noting in this development is his free-throw shooting. After making just 55.6 percent of his attempts over his first two seasons in the league, Achiuwa currently sits at 75.4 percent in ‘22-23. He had a career high in both makes and attempts on Jan. 22, going 8-for-10 at the line. Achiuwa is as confident as they come, but knowing he can attack the basket without worrying he might not make the opposing team pay if he gets to the line can have its own freeing effect. Even for the opponent now, there’s a different calculus to when it’s worth trying to put Achiuwa at the line.
“He's really doing a good job of that,” Nurse said. “He's getting the step, and he's putting his body on people. There's no, he's not trying to finesse much up there. Which, he should, he's got a tremendous body, and power, and force, to do that with. It's good that he's feeling the rhythm to do that.”
He is an improving rim threat, but even with three-point shooting being as variable as it is, Achiuwa has a long way to go with that in terms of being recognized as a legitimate three-point shooting option. Between Jan. 21 and Apr. 10 of last season, he shot 47-for-115 (40.9%) from deep. He is 23-for-97 (23.7%) for his career outside of that, but there is some cause for optimism of late. He shot just 5-of-34 (14.7%) from deep to start this season, but has made 9 of 21 attempts (42.9%) since Jan. 10.
38 percent of his shots come within three feet of the basket while 29 percent of his shots are threes and that shows why these two aspects of his offensive game are critical.
Achiuwa has explained that his individual shot spectrum is entirely based on feel, that if he’s feeling good about his jumper then he’ll look to space the floor when without the basketball but look to crash the glass and offensive rebound if the shot’s not feeling too hot. With the ball in his hands, you can see the feel for what to do and when growing and one can only imagine what that might look like if it ever gets to the level of his defence that he has admitted comes more naturally to him.
Early on against the Kings, he was dared to go left and did, finishing with a dunk after a single dribble. Later, he backed into Sabonis and finished right over him at the basket. By the fourth quarter, he was giving a little show-and-go and soaring to the rim before throwing in a catch-and-shoot three from the corner. On the other end, he continued to give Sabonis a nightmare and switched onto De’Aaron Fox when required with aplomb.
Put those plays together and it’s hard to build an extensive list of players who can check all those boxes. What’s harder still, and will represent the next step for Achiuwa, is to do it consistently. That’s when the conversation of him becoming a starter – a role he filled in admirably for a couple games with averages of 14.5 points and 11 rebounds – can become real.
Complementary on offence, supplementary on defence, Achiuwa hitting his stride is proving a vital piece of the puzzle in how the Raptors want to play and who they want to be. Perhaps the most important part is that he’s helped give them a reminder of what they can be.