Precious Achiuwa is an elite defender

TheBoi10 · Post #1 » by **TheBoi10** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:45 am

A lot has been made of the progression of his offensive game in particular his 3pt shooting. But let's talking about his defense.

Precious clamped up a superstar center through the first 3 quarters of the game and at key moments of the 4th

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Clamped up the 76ers closer in the 4th quarter, a superstar guard, staying in step with him the whole time

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Bogus call against Precious, we won't see that in the future as his reputation grows

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If this the version of Precious we get consistently maybe Nick should go to Gary off the bench once FVV and OG come back, and have Precious starting in time for the playoffs.

execoftheyear · Post #2 » by **execoftheyear** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:10 am

I said it before, he's our best defender. Dude is ridiculously quick moving laterally (first thing that stuck out to me) and has the strength to hold his position to stifle penetration or a player backing him down. He's like an OG/Siakam hybrid defensively. He has OG's elite lateral quicks and strength mixed with Siakam's size, length and speed. If he can expand his offensive game we got ourselves a pretty damn good player.

I can't wait to see a lineup of OG, Siakam, Barnes, Precious and Boucher. That lineup can pretty much switch everything.

pingpongrac · Post #3 » by **pingpongrac** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:37 am

I said it in another thread, but Achiuwa is already such a good defender that he would be getting DPOY votes if he played 5 MPG more. His 1-on-1 defence is incredible and his team defence is nearly flawless while he is an elite rim protector. His DFG% (43.1%) is comparable to Gobert, Bam and Horford. His DFG% at the rim (52.0%) is comparable to Giannis, Williams and Mobley. His D-EPM (+2.4) is comparable to AD, JJJ and Horford. Basically every defensive stat paints Achiuwa in a very positive light.

He can defend anyone too. According to NBA.com, Achiuwa defends forwards 46% of the time and centers 31% of the time while he defends guards 23% of the time. If you dig deeper into the numbers, you'll see that Achiuwa gets burned by guards the most in large parts due to hot shooting (44/38/76 shooting splits) while he has been stifling forward/centers (42/28/77 shooting splits). He has just been unreal on the defensive end and his offence has been coming around at a rapid rate.

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Raps in 4 · Post #4 » by **Raps in 4** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:12 am

I was blown away after his first summer league game. He's definitely a special defender. We talk about Barnes being able to guard 1 to 5, but Precious is way better at it. He can actually stay in front of quicker guards.

Yeah, he's a negative IQ player on offence, but if he can become just average on that side of the floor, he'll be a top tier bigman in the league. You can already see progress with his 3pt shooting.

I don't understand how some people can hate on this trade.

Madhouse · Post #5 » by **Madhouse** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 11:53 am

He's been since day 1 on the Raptors although he recently took another step forward.

He's not far off Bam and Draymond anymore and I'm not sure who else can defend that well in the post and perimeter at the same time.

He locked up Embiid and Harden, that's really hard to do.

ash_k · Post #6 » by **ash_k** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 11:58 am

execoftheyear wrote:I said it before, he's our best defender. Dude is ridiculously quick moving laterally (first thing that stuck out to me) and has the strength to hold his position to stifle penetration or a player backing him down. He's like an OG/Siakam hybrid defensively. He has OG's elite lateral quicks and strength mixed with Siakam's size, length and speed. If he can expand his offensive game we got ourselves a pretty damn good player.

I can't wait to see a lineup of OG, Siakam, Barnes, Precious and Boucher. That lineup can pretty much switch everything.

That lineup is the reason I want Milwaukee in the first round!! Precious on Giannis with Boucher backing him looked like the recipe to beat them (in that last game). Then OG has no issues against Middleton

Los_29 · Post #7 » by **Los_29** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:00 pm

Precious is a stud.

Psubs · Post #8 » by **Psubs** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:49 pm

ash_k wrote:
execoftheyear wrote:I said it before, he's our best defender. Dude is ridiculously quick moving laterally (first thing that stuck out to me) and has the strength to hold his position to stifle penetration or a player backing him down. He's like an OG/Siakam hybrid defensively. He has OG's elite lateral quicks and strength mixed with Siakam's size, length and speed. If he can expand his offensive game we got ourselves a pretty damn good player.

I can't wait to see a lineup of OG, Siakam, Barnes, Precious and Boucher. That lineup can pretty much switch everything.

That lineup is the reason I want Milwaukee in the first round!! Precious on Giannis with Boucher backing him looked like the recipe to beat them (in that last game). Then OG has no issues against Middleton

OG can play Middleton relatively even, FVV play Jrue relatively even, then Barnes and Siakam better vastly outplay Portis and whoever.

WaltFrazier · Post #9 » by **WaltFrazier** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:53 pm

TheBoi10 wrote:A lot has been made of the progression of his offensive game in particular his 3pt shooting. But let's talking about his defense.

Bogus call against Precious, we won't see that in the future as his reputation grows

Yes we will see it, he's still a Raptor.

WaltFrazier · Post #10 » by **WaltFrazier** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:57 pm

Psubs wrote:
ash_k wrote:
execoftheyear wrote:I said it before, he's our best defender. Dude is ridiculously quick moving laterally (first thing that stuck out to me) and has the strength to hold his position to stifle penetration or a player backing him down. He's like an OG/Siakam hybrid defensively. He has OG's elite lateral quicks and strength mixed with Siakam's size, length and speed. If he can expand his offensive game we got ourselves a pretty damn good player.

I can't wait to see a lineup of OG, Siakam, Barnes, Precious and Boucher. That lineup can pretty much switch everything.

That lineup is the reason I want Milwaukee in the first round!! Precious on Giannis with Boucher backing him looked like the recipe to beat them (in that last game). Then OG has no issues against Middleton

OG can play Middleton relatively even, FVV play Jrue relatively even, then Barnes and Siakam better vastly outplay Portis and whoever.

Fred has big trouble scoring on Jrue but agree with the rest.

Just because Precious' D has become so good, some posters have to say "best defender" in OG's absence. Where the really good thing is when OG returns our team D will be that much tougher to score on, the more elite defenders the better.

bboyskinnylegs · Post #11 » by **bboyskinnylegs** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 1:17 pm

Precious is the same kind of prospect that OG was for us back when we drafted him. He's better suited playing small-ball C imo, but is just as versatile defensively. Pretty awesome that we have him on a cheap rookie deal through the '23-24 season.

OakleyDokely · Post #12 » by **OakleyDokely** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 1:38 pm

An elite defender who can also handle the ball and hit 3s at a 37% clip, earning 3 and 4 million the next two seasons.

That right there is a very valuable asset.

OakleyDokely · Post #13 » by **OakleyDokely** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 1:59 pm

Moving forward, I like the idea of starting:

Precious
Siakam
Barnes
OG
VV

GTJ would be an ideal 6th man type who can come in and provide energy with his defence and his ability to hit shots. He could also become trade bait if his asking price becomes to high. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable paying him more than 25M a year. Raps are going to have an interesting decision with him.

SirKen · Post #14 » by **SirKen** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:00 pm

bboyskinnylegs wrote:Precious is the same kind of prospect that OG was for us back when we drafted him. He's better suited playing small-ball C imo, but is just as versatile defensively. Pretty awesome that we have him on a cheap rookie deal through the '23-24 season.

Honestly, I see Precious more as a PF than a small ball C (I know, semantics). It would be fantastic if we could find a young C to complement this team.

tripa · Post #15 » by **tripa** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:01 pm

OakleyDokely wrote:Moving forward, I like the idea of starting:

Precious
Siakam
Barnes
OG
VV

GTJ would be an ideal 6th man type who can come in and provide energy with his defence and his ability to hit shots. He could also become trade bait if his asking price becomes to high. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable paying him more than 25M a year. Raps are going to have an interesting decision with him.

Nah, this lineup is bottom 5 in the league offensively.

OakleyDokely · Post #16 » by **OakleyDokely** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:05 pm

tripa wrote:
OakleyDokely wrote:Moving forward, I like the idea of starting:

Precious
Siakam
Barnes
OG
VV

GTJ would be an ideal 6th man type who can come in and provide energy with his defence and his ability to hit shots. He could also become trade bait if his asking price becomes to high. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable paying him more than 25M a year. Raps are going to have an interesting decision with him.

Nah, this lineup is bottom 5 in the league offensively.

They might struggle if rookie Barnes and second year Precious don't improve at all. But that's very unlikely.

Don_Draper · Post #17 » by **Don_Draper** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:31 pm

Does Achiuwa have a case for most improved player award?

visionquest · Post #18 » by **visionquest** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:34 pm

Headband defence

tripa · Post #19 » by **tripa** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:37 pm

Don_Draper wrote:Does Achiuwa have a case for most improved player award?

No

brownbobcat · Post #20 » by **brownbobcat** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:53 pm

Madhouse wrote:He's been since day 1 on the Raptors although he recently took another step forward.

He's not far off Bam and Draymond anymore and I'm not sure who else can defend that well in the post and perimeter at the same time.

He locked up Embiid and Harden, that's really hard to do.

Being able to deploy a Bam-lite would be an amazing option. I don't really see the Draymond comparisons since his contributions are mostly based on bball IQ and not at the point of attack.