When the fateful OG Anunoby trade went down last December, very few envisioned any bigger role for Precious Achiuwa than a backup center who would depart in free agency in the offseason. His impact would be rather minimal and was merely a depth piece.
That didn’t wind up happening. Achiuwa played some of the best basketball of his career down the stretch in 2023-24, with his season-defining moment being his excellent defense on Joel Embiid in a pivotal Game 4 when Mitchell Robinson was out and Isaiah Hartenstein was in foul trouble.
He played at such a great level that, upon Hartenstein’s departure and with nominal fears of Robinson’s health, they gave him $7 million to return for this season.
Before training camp, Achiuwa was considered the team’s starting center on Opening Night due to Robinson’s surgery in May. He was quickly pushed to the bench when the team acquired Karl-Anthony Towns, but Achiuwa didn’t even make it to October 22nd, hurting his hamstring and missing significant time.
While he was out, the Knicks struggled with defense and rim protection. Although KAT’s new backup, Jericho Sims (and occasionally Ariel Hukporti), did better, neither carved out a big role and/or played well enough outside of rim protection to merit more time.
Precious made his long-awaited return to the lineup on December 5th in the team’s blowout win against the Hornets. There was naturally some rust to shake off, he only had two points and four rebounds in 12 minutes, but he was +11 and made an impact defensively, like right here on OAKAAK Da’Quan Jeffries’ layup attempt.
Good defense without fouling is one of the best things Achiuwa can provide, although he was rusty in that regard against Charlotte.
Diabate’s screen successfully gets Anunoby off of Brandon Miller, but Achiuwa doesn’t give him too much space to operate and gets off a good contest.
It happened again! Achiuwa steps up on Miller to force him into a sidestep after the previous switch didn’t work.
Last one from this game. Nick Smith Jr. isn’t an offensive juggernaut by any means, but a big man holding his ground extremely well one-on-one to force a pass to checks notes Nick Richards for his second mid-range shot all season with the shot clock winding down. Good all-around defense!
Achiuwa had a significantly larger role in Saturday’s loss to Detroit due to Towns’ injury. Achiuwa played 27 minutes, scoring six points with ten rebounds and four assists and was a +9 in a nine-point defeat.
This type of defensive IQ is what has been sorely missed. Achiuwa plays great defense on Ivey without fouling, doesn’t give up on the play, stuffs Duren at the rim, and tips the rebound to Brunson.
Just a few possessions before, Duren tries to drive on Achiuwa to the rim, but it’s again great straight-up defense.
Achiuwa is an undersized five, but he, along with Robinson and Hartenstein, and really good at putting a body on someone and boxing them out. We’ve seen a few times this season where the team has sorely missed Robinson and Achiuwa despite Towns averaging 13 rebounds a game. Teams are getting a few too many second opportunities against the Knicks so far this season.
Last night in Toronto, Achiuwa only played 16 minutes but had seven points, six rebounds, and two blocks.
Having KAT means we’re not truly desperate for a center who is physically capable of making a shot away from the rim. That said, Achiuwa is much more offensively gifted than both Jericho Sims and Mitchell Robinson. Him shooting threes is a horrifying sight, but he can make these at a decent rate.
30 seconds before this play, Achiuwa stuffed Gradey Dick in help defense at the rim. On this play, he’s defending Kelly Olynyk and shows patience, reads him perfectly, and blocks him to end the quarter. A less patient big fouls Olynyk here, but this is what the Knicks have desperately missed in Achiuwa.
So, you’ve seen some of the film, but what do the numbers say? The box score stats are relatively useless at this sample, but we can look at the lineup numbers.
Achiuwa has played 55 minutes through three games. The Knicks have a +25.6 net rating with him on the court, with a blistering 129.8 offensive rating and a 104.2 defensive rating. That net rating is the second-highest of any player with at least 50 minutes this season (Ryan Rollins, garbage time player for Milwaukee).
Let’s look at the lineups. With KAT missing the Pistons game, Achiuwa has 14 minutes with the other four starters. That lineup has a defensive rating of 100.0. Granted, this isn’t an indictment on Towns, as the starting lineup as a 95.5 defensive rating in the last four games (76 min sample).
The third most used Achiuwa lineup is a double big lineup! That lineup of Deuce-Bridges-Hart-Achiuwa-Towns was very strong in a very limited sample. That makes you think, how has, overall, Towns and Achiuwa played together?
First off, this is our first experience with KAT acting as a four. Sims and Towns haven’t played a second with each other, although Thibs said he considered it. This is something that we will need a bit more time to seriously evaluate, but the early returns are shockingly good.
11 minutes, 154.4 offensive rating, 66.7 defensive rating, +87.9 net rating.
Excuse me?
It’s such a small sample that I can’t compare it to anything in good faith, but both times the Knicks have run the lineup, it has snowed teams in. The exact numbers, in pure box score data, are the following:
vs Charlotte: 7:00, outscored CHA 18-12
@ Toronto: 4:02, outscored TOR 15-4
In 11:02, they’ve outscored teams 33-16 with both on the floor. That’s just under a quarter of domination.
Here’s just one play of why they can be so good. Fastbreak off a miss, KAT makes the outlet pass and Hart uses the threat of Achiuwa cutting to the rim to find Bridges with a great jump pass for a dunk. The offensive versatility of this team allows them to run two bigs, especially if two of KAT, Hart, and Brunson are on the floor as playmakers.
Take this with a grain of salt. It’s only two lottery teams. It’ll eventually get into a normal statistical range.
That said, the early returns are so positive that Thibs has to carve out at least five minutes a game for both to play together.