The Raptors' trajectory remains unpredictable after their historic win over the Orlando Magic, followed by two tough losses to the Detroit Pistons and the lowly 20-57 Sacramento Kings. Despite having the homecourt advantage and looking like the better team on-paper, despite missing Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley in the lineup, the Kings still rallied to a 123-115 victory.
Surprisingly enough, it would be two Toronto Raptors alumni who stood above the rest for SacTown as the key players of the game. Former franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan tallied 28 points, while ex-Raptors big man Precious Achiuwa was undoubtedly the star of the night, with 28 points of his own to go with a whopping 19 rebounds.
Precious Achiuwa looked like a monster against his former Raptors squad
A noteworthy tidbit: of those 19 rebounds, 11 of them were offensive boards (which is an absurd amount to give up on Toronto's end). He also led the Kings with a team-high plus/minus of +22. Achiuwa finished just one point shy of tying his career-high of 29 points, which he has achieved twice this season in late February and early March. The rebound total might sound like it's up there in career-high territory, however, Achiuwa's career-high in boards still stands at 22 back with the Raptors in 2022 against his former Heat squad.
Honestly, I am quite stunned to see how far Achiuwa has come. Sure, he's doing this for the Sacramento Kings, so maybe some will take it with a grain of salt. But then again, here's a guy that caught my eye as eerily close to being out of the league, until the Kings picked him up in November and he's blossomed into a nice frontcourt piece for them since then. On the year, Achiuwa is averaging a career-high 9.9 points on 53.7 percent shooting and 6.7 rebounds.
I'm sure Raptors fans can still recall when Precious Achiuwa looked like he'd be a building block for Toronto's hopeful young core, being given many opportunities to make a name for himself in the system. However, despite being recognized as a rising star in the past, Achiuwa's Raptors tenure was marred by several instances where his basketball IQ (or lackthereof) stood out as a detriment. He'd have some very bad lapses, not knowing where to be or what to do with the ball, and his shot decisions were quite questionable.
All in all, you'd have occasional spurts of promise from Achiuwa, but he could easily become an afterthought just as quick. As a result, he was deemed expendable and was later included as a throw-in for the OG Anunoby-Knicks trade, where he carved out a decent role for a bit until he wasn't extended in free agency.
I don't know how fair it was to sell Achiuwa short on his NBA journey, considering he's still just 26 years old. But then again, we've seen a lot of young players who once showed promise that just fizzled out of the league and into irrelevancy. Thankfully for him and the Kings, they've fostered a connection and role that sees him thrive as a key component to their frontcourt, which has taken a massive depth hit. He could still get better and that's a benefit for a Sacramento franchise which doesn't boast many bright spots of upside.
On the flip side, while the Achiuwa departure from Toronto was more than reasonable, you still can't help but feel a bit regretful that he couldn't blossom into this version of himself with the Raps. There were hopeful signs, but like I said, it just never came together. Though sometimes in the NBA, it takes a radical change of scenery to unlock the best version of that player.