Raptors’ Precious Achiuwa’s growth spurt not about to stop now

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VICTORIA, B.C. — It seems almost unconscionable to ask Precious Achiuwa to take another jump.

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For the record, Precious Achiuwa does not share that sentiment.

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A year ago, in his first season with the Raptors, the power forward/undersized centre arrived looking to live up to the billing as the big get in the Kyle Lowry trade that also saw Goran Dragic temporarily in a Raptors’ uniform.

Achiuwa, though, was still extremely green by NBA standards and early on there were as many moments of head shaking ‘how could he do that?’ as there were ‘wow did you see that?’ from the native of Nigeria.

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By the time the Raptors rolled into the playoffs, though, and really from all-star weekend on, Achiuwa was everything the Raptors could have hoped for when they agreed to the sign-and-trade that sent Lowry to Miami.

If you weren’t impressed with Achiuwa’s level of play in the post-season guarding Joel Embiid for six consecutive games, you simply weren’t paying attention.

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Games 3, 4, and 5 in particular were some of the best basketball of his young career, and Achiuwa took that into the summer and has come back even better than he left, according to his head coach.

“He just feels, I think, a lot more comfortable, right?” Nick Nurse said of Achiuwa. “I just think that he understands what we’re doing. I think he feels like he fits in. I think he’s a versatile player and I think he likes to see himself as that. I think we let him express that. I just think he’s maturing and getting used to his surroundings, and I think he enjoys playing for us and all that kind of stuff. So, I think all that stuff kind of goes into just giving him a lot more confidence.”

Which is not to say Achiuwa wasn’t confident before. This is a very proud young man who knows his combination of speed and size make him a tough matchup for anyone he comes up against, regardless of size as he showed at times in that series with the Sixers and Embiid in particular.

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But knowing you can do something and having actually done it are two different things and Achiuwa is well past that knowing part.

“The second half of the season really made me understand what I’m capable of doing and how much more I could do,” he said. “Just got to keep doing the same thing, having the same approach to the game, and I took that to my workouts as well. It’s kind of like a vision, you take it and run with it.”

Achiuwa provides Nurse and the Raptors the kind of versatility this Raptors organization covets.

He can guard 1-through-5 and offensively he can hurt you from just about anywhere on the floor with his ability to shoot from distance and drive with force.

Nurse says the next step for Achiuwa is just doing it more consistently.

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“The average to above average games need to increase from two out of five, to three out of five, to four out of six,” Nurse said. “Like, that’s what to me is going to show us our growth and progress. And I would imagine he’ll have some games where we’re like ‘Wowee, how did he get 25 tonight?’ and then he’ll probably have a few games where we’re wondering where he was like, like any of the guys, not him in particular. But, for me, and this is what’s most important, can he put enough above-average performances together without having to show up in the points column? Can he run? Can he rebound? Can he defend? Can he make plays, even if it’s not one of the nights the ball’s not finding him, or it’s going in and out or whatever, and you still feel like, man, that guy really impacted the game. I really see that as a goal for a lot of guys.”

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SIAKAM ON EVERYONE’S MIND

Pascal Siakam made it very clear on media day in Toronto on Monday that his goal this year is to become one of the top-five players in the league. But it’s not just Siakam’s goal as Fred VanVleet reminded us all on Wednesday.

Siakam becoming a top player in this league isn’t just good for Siakam, it’s good for the entire team.

“He looks like he’s having fun again, back at peace and just playing at that all-NBA calibre level,” VanVleet said of Siakam, whom he broke into the league with as rookies. “Now we just got to get him the top-five player in the league. That’s what he wants, and we’ve got to help him do that.”

VanVleet has no reservations that the goal is attainable.

“Absolutely,” VanVleet said. “No doubt about it.”

He’s got the toolbox, there’s not anything on the court he can’t do, find ways to support him, put him in positions to be great and continue to lead us.”

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