With all that Miami Heat forward, Precious Achiuwa, has endured this season, what do we make of his rookie year?
When looking at where Achiuwa stacks up against his rookie counterparts, it isn’t anything to write home about either, but that has everything to do with how he has been used as well. Here are some of the figures.
Precious ranks 38th among rookies in scoring, at 4.8 points per game and is tied for 19th and 20th in rebounds, at 3.4 per contest. He comes in at 40th in minutes played among rookies, at 11.9 per contest.
To the Miami Heat’s need to play him in their rotation, he has had to play in 58 total games for the Heat this season, a number than ranks him tied for 13th and 14th among rookies. In actual minutes played though, he ranks just 27th, at 692.
While his numbers are one thing, you can see flashes of good stuff on the court, though not nearly consistent enough yet. Here is what he had to say on how some of those things have come together for him.
"“I watch a lot of those guys,” he said. “I see the things that they could do and I try to do things from their game and incorporate into my game. Just with my physical abilities — strong, fast, jump high — that’s not something I have to go learn. But other parts of my game, learning from these guys, Kelly, Beli, Bam, I just try to watch them and take one or two things from their game and added it to mine as the season is going on.”"
That’s a good approach. All of the aforementioned is also why it’s hard to give him a finite and complete grade.
Without the typical resources or necessary build-ups that are typically put into place for a rookie, we can’t judge Achiuwa. You may look at other situations and ask why others are succeeding, but then you have to think about this.
From what seems like the very onset of the season, the Miami Heat looked as though they would need to depend on Precious minutes to be their best selves, they needed him the rotation.
Other rookies, perhaps, haven’t had those responsibilities. Also and even if they did, how many of them were playing for the reigning Conference Champs and a team that had just left the Finals in the previous year?
Yes, that matters. From an expectations standpoint and from the perspective of every team giving you their best shot, that absolutely matters.
While you expect Precious to come back much better next season, you can’t fully judge him on this one. While giving him a grade can’t be shunned upon, here, we’ll just leave it at incomplete.
That’s not because you don’t have the information to finish, but because he wasn’t given the best chance. Now, with an offseason under his belt, the microscopic light beam will get even hotter.
Then… we can tell you if he’s bad… or not.