Okay, remember that last article, written yesterday, about how Precious Achiuwa needs to do more for the Raptors?
It wasn’t me.
I saw your byline.
It wasn’t me.
I saw you post it.
It wasn’t me.
Actually, Achiuwa can do no wrong. (If he were to play the Miami Heat every game, then we’d really be cooking with gas.)
In the second quarter the Toronto Raptors’ Dec. 6 game against the Miami Heat, Otto Porter jr. caught the ball in the corner, drawing a closeout. He took one good dribble into the paint and immediately swung it to his closest teammate. That happened to be Achiuwa, who burst inside the lane before the defense could notice (stampede cuts rock) and then jumped thin through two defenders before finishing gently with his left hand. Empty space in front of him is good.
But, okay, yesterday’s piece was me. I can’t go full, shameless Shaggy. It was me, and I stand by it. I want to do a follow-up now, though. A little redux. Here’s a brief part of what I wrote yesterday:
“Darko Rajakovic and the Raptors haven’t put Achiuwa in a position to succeed. When he has played alongside Toronto’s best, his numbers have been fine. Good, even. This has been true since he joined the team — and his best stretch, coming to end the 2021-22 season, came when he got time with the starters. This season, when Achiuwa has played without either of Malachi Flynn or Gradey Dick on the floor, the Raptors have won those minutes pretty handily. The thing is, they have only played 80 of those minutes. Achiuwa just hasn’t seen the time alongside players who create advantages for him and let him drive into gaps.”
I sort of waved that away by saying he needs to earn those minutes. And to some extent, that is true. He does have to earn minutes alongside starter-heavy groups. But his bench units don’t need to be quite so detrimental to his play. For example: Coming into the Raptors’ game against the Heat, Achiuwa had logged zero minutes alongside both of Otto Porter jr. and Gary Trent jr. He played only 32 minutes alongside OG Anunoby.
Those are the three players who draw the most defensive attention behind the arc for the Raptors. The three best shooters on the team. And Achiuwa is at his best with open space in front of him, with a runway, into which he can cut and run and cavort towards a twisting layup. He is a phenomenal athlete. Make his choices easy, and he will succeed. Shooters create space on the offensive end; they displace defenders. They make their teammates’ choices easy. Not just for Achiuwa, as Darko Rajakovic made sure to say to me when I asked about it helping Achiuwa.
“It helps, it helps with everybody,” he said. “It helps with starters, it helps with Jak, it helps with Precious, obviously. Just the spacing is different when you know that somebody is a good shooter and that he demands better close outs and chas[ing] off the line and going over the screens. Definitely it helps and it helps with decision making by the whole team.”
And yet Achiuwa hasn’t played alongside shooters. Perhaps Achiuwa has to earn his minutes alongside Pascal Siakam and Anunoby and Scottie Barnes, particularly if he wants to play alongside that trio all at the same time. But does he have to earn minutes alongside Anunoby, Trent, and Porter? Why can’t that foursome be a meaningful core to a bench rotation?
Well, Rajakovic has only recently started using Anunoby with the bench. I imagine Achiuwa will get more time alongside him going forward. And of all the shooters, Achiuwa does see a huge chunk of his minutes alongside Trent. And Porter? It’s really hard to say. He’s playing only 12.1 minutes per game, the fewest since his rookie year. And he logged DNPs in four of the team’s last five games entering the Heat contest. For my money, he’s Toronto’s most trustworthy bench player, or at worst second. The Raptors could do with playing him more. I asked why he hasn’t been playing so much, but Rajakovic didn’t answer directly and looked more towards the future than the past.
“He was in [the] rotation tonight,” said Rajakovic. “I think he did a good job tonight, and he’s going to be in [the] rotation for now going forward.”
So at least some of the reasons why Achiuwa is not playing alongside shooters are not because of him, per say, as much as the realities of other players. That’s not a controllable for Achiuwa himself.
The question at that point becomes: How important is it for Rajakovic and the Raptors to prioritize Achiuwa’s development. It’s obviously not first on the list — that goes to Barnes’ development. It’s pretty clearly not second on the list. Or really not anywhere close. Achiuwa has spent more time playing alongside both of Chris Boucher and Jalen McDaniels than both of Porter and Trent. That’s a pretty obvious indication that Rajakovic isn’t spending NBA minutes on the growth of Achiuwa.
That’s fair, though. Achiuwa hasn’t done a huge amount in his NBA career. There are only 48 minutes a game, and there are a lot of players on NBA rosters. Coaches have to pick and choose what they prioritize with their rotations. Winning games is usually important. But there’s a host of other things that demand attention. What duos and trios work? Who should play off the bench? What plays work in what scenarios? Who can defend in certain ways? Can the starters prepare new defensive sets for the playoffs? That’s a whole lot of information that coaches need to find out, and that doesn’t even get into development for individual players.
But I would argue that as long as Achiuwa is doing this alongside a maximal amount of shooting, the team needs to keep going to it. It helps them win games. Helps them develop everyone. What benefits Achiuwa is certain to benefit other players, in other ways.
To end the third quarter, Achiuwa played alongside his ideal rotation of Trent, Porter, and Anunoby as well as Barnes at point guard. (By the way, I suggested this group in a piece before the season about Raptors units that could win their minutes, but with Anunoby in place of Gradey Dick. If you want to read about it, I called the unit the hypermodern.) And that group did well! Barnes and Achiuwa ran a pick, sucked in the defense, and the ball swung to the corner, then back to the perimeter for an open triple for Trent. He canned it. They got a stop then created another triple for Anunoby, which he missed.. A 3-0 run ain’t bad. And, yet, it came in under a minute. As in: the group didn’t even get to play a full minute together.
To start the fourth quarter, Anunoby was on the bench, but Achiuwa still played alongside Trent and Porter. Perhaps the trio would have played more minutes, but they were cut short; Achiuwa left on an, umm, memorable note. He had a seemingly spicy conversation with Miami’s Caleb Martin that led to his getting pulled, and he and Rajakovic spoke for a while after. He then had conversations with multiple assistant coaches while on the bench. He didn’t return to the game. It’s clear that even if Achiuwa’s development isn’t the most important thing on Rajakovic’s list, it sure is on it.
Ultimately though, Toronto’s starters dug a double-digit hole to start both halves of the game. Bench units, with Achiuwa playing roles in both, climbed their way out both times. Playing units that benefit Achiuwa has benefits for everyone. Of course, the benefits weren’t enough to actually win the game. The Raptors lost to the Heat. But we’re talking about information around the margins, here. There’s wins and lessons, and I’m choosing to focus on the latter. Achiuwa played 13 minutes, and the game certainly wasn’t lost in that time.
So, yes, now I’ve written about Achiuwa two days in a row. That’s life. I would honestly write about Achiuwa 50 times a season if you had any appetite to read it. (Don’t lie, I know none of you do.) I find his unbelievable abilities in conjunction with his hyper-evident limitations enormously compelling. It’s art, to me. It’s the same reason why I love games when Giannis Antetokunmpo takes five triples. I love watching the most gifted among us bang their heads against a wall. Perfection is boring.
Give me Precious Achiuwa every day; there’s more to sports than winning, and more to enjoyment than numbers.
