It didn’t seem like much, to start. He didn’t play in the first quarter, coming into the game at least eighth in the rotation, behind Christian Koloko and Juancho Hernangomez. Only four minutes the other night, 10 the next outing. A humble beginning. It seems, sometimes, like he has to learn the game of basketball anew every time he steps on the floor, Memento with lower stakes — okay, what am I doing?. Oh, I’m chasing this guy in transition defense, turnaround, run the other way, No, he’s chasing me.
It didn’t take long for Precious Achiuwa to put the puzzle pieces in place. Thus far, he’s always figured it out eventually. At first, the dial was set to attack: every time Achiuwa sniffed the ball, he galloped to the rim, or tried to. At first, he juked into the paint and lofted a seven-foot hook layup that missed by eight feet. Okay, slow start.
But then a drive from the corner, bursting past his defender as he goes middle, switching hands to get to the rim — but blowing the layup. Closer.
A step backwards: a defensive rebound and mad dash to the paint, spinning into a double team and getting stripped. Calibrating, though. Simply calibrating. Remembering what works and what doesn’t.
“It was shaky,” said Nick Nurse of Achiuwa’s initial stint, “but it was aggressive shaky. Probably overly aggressive.”
Then, though: Then it clicks in place, the moment of eureka. He hits an above-the-break triple. Then a corner triple drips through the net the second he touches it. Later, a pick and roll with Pascal Siakam, he pops, cashes another triple. Forces a timeout. He is now obliterating the defense.
“You can let him play through maybe a couple of not great decisions, a couple of mistakes here and there,” explained Nurse. “He needs one of those extended things and just like everybody he’s going to make mistakes and it’s nice to let him play through some and show what he can do.”
“After I hit my first three I knew I had a couple more in me,” said Achiuwa after the game. “I felt good.”
This was Achiuwa last season. The good and the bad. He started the season with indecent awareness, turtling once he caught the ball, slowing, isolating when the play didn’t ask for it, passing when he had advantages. The raw talent was there, and the athleticism was overwhelmingly there, but the experience with what each moment required was lacking. It took him almost half the season to gain it, but by the playoffs he was foundational, connecting on catch-and-shoot triples with consistency, breaking down defenders with the dribble in transition, and bursting past Joel Embiid for dunks.
He bottled that batteries-not-included experience coming into this season. Heck, he bottled it coming into this game.
But this is the reason why you let Achiuwa play through mistakes. You don’t do that for everyone. Chris Boucher is fouling and missing layups and jumping at pump fakes? Not his night. Dalano Banton can’t get separation with the dribble? Not his month. But Achiuwa is unique, and that buys him patience.
If there’s any one thing that’s going to get this Raptors season back on track, it’s going to be Achiuwa rounding into form. Toronto is now on a two-game winning streak, tying its longest of the season. Achiuwa with confidence, honouring the patience of the coaching staff, could be the component that finally pushes Toronto to a three-game streak. (Or, perhaps, just playing the Charlotte Hornets again.)
“When he’s kind of got his motor running or revved up or whatever it is, he can be a force at both ends at the basket,” said Nurse. “His force and athleticism at the rim at both ends becomes something we don’t really have.”
“Coach is very patient with him,” said VanVleet after the game.
Achiuwa himself knows how valuable he is to this team.
“I’m confident. I’m confident where I’m at right now. I think I’m getting my rhythm back, which is the most important thing for me. And, I think, I believe, for the team as well.”
Whether or not he’s earned more patience than other players to capture his rhythm is almost beside the point — the Raptors need to be more patient with Achiuwa because of what he can do when he shakes the rust off and becomes final-evolution Precious, hitting triples, driving and dunking, and stonewalling opponents on the other end. Poor decisions, shmoor decisions: you need him, so you wait for him. It’s as simple as that. Kevin’s family left him behind in Home Alone, but they damn sure wouldn’t have if he was driving them to the airport. Being needed has its benefits sometimes.
“I think just going forward for our team to be the best it can be, I think just keeping it simple first, and then as you get the flow in the feel, the talent will shine through,” says VanVleet of Achiuwa, fairly, after the game.
But I push VanVeet, probing further. Does Achiuwa bust out the crazy stuff at practice? “Yeah, he’s the same all the time. He’s the same.”
I fly too close to the sun. “What’s your reaction then?” I ask. He thinks I want the criticism, the ferocity, the lack of patience. It’s just the opposite, my intention, but it’s too late now. “Come on man,” says VanVleet, protective of his guy, warts and all. “We love Precious.”
And the Raptors do love Precious. Protective of his flaws and complimentary of his abilities. Partly because they need to, but also because he is truly unique — and that’s worth protecting, and complimenting. He’s not just unique on this team. How many guys are as athletic as Achiuwa in the NBA? Thirty, maybe, if you’re being generous. And how many of those can hit triples and have ball handling skills? It’s a small, small number. And the Venn diagram of those guys and stars is almost a circle.
Achiuwa, of course, is not a star. But because he looks so damn much like one athletically, you stay patient with him. For a half of basketball? Of course, without question, and sometimes he’ll repay you with three triples in a win. Do you stay patient for longer, for seasons at a time? You should, because if he becomes what he could, when rust no longer plagues the start of his seasons, of his games, when experience lets him know what he needs at any moment, then that’s what changes the long-term texture of this team. Just like it did during Toronto’s second-half sprint last season. But with the trade deadline coming up, we’re about to find out how much the Raptors value the future, whether they can be patient at the cost of the present, and whether there could be a pot of gold or just more turnovers at the end of that rainbow.
