Precious Achiuwa
Precious is a bit of a wild card on this Raptors team. Defensively, his athletic talents really help fuel their motor. He has great timing when it comes to blocking shots, and he moves his feet well for a bigger guy. He is an absolute force on the defensive end of the ball, and the Raptors rely on him as a crucial part of their bench unit.
Offensively, though, Achiuwa tends to bite off more than he can chew. He has traditionally been at his best with the ball in rotation, taking advantage of reeling defenses by attacking the paint or shooting the three.
Despite the relative success he has enjoyed in these areas, Precious still has a tendency to call his own number, trying to isolate his man off the dribble instead of keeping the ball moving.
Achiuwa isolations have been some of the Raptors’ most inefficient offense this season, scoring a meager 0.61 points per possession in these situations. Precious ranks in the seventh percentile leaguewide in isolation efficiency.
Jakob Poeltl’s passing has helped Precious Achiuwa get looks at the rim.
At this point in his young career, Achiuwa doesn’t have the offensive skill to beat his defender one-on-one consistently. What he does have is a physically imposing body that is tough for opponents to stop when driving in space toward the basket.
Having a skilled passer like Poeltl should allow the Raptors to get the ball to Achiuwa where he is most effective, cutting toward the basket with a head of steam. We’ve already seen this duo at work. In this play, Poeltl deftly navigates the short roll, attacking the basket and forcing the defense to commit. Banchero steps in to stop the ball, and Poeltl drops the ball off to Achiuwa for the backdoor dunk.
If these two can develop some synergy, we can look forward to seeing more connections between these two guys going forward.