This past year in the NBA Draft, the Miami Heat took forward, Precious Achiuwa, out of Memphis with the 20th overall pick. A steal of a pick at the time, having been ranked as high as the lottery throughout points in his lone college season, things would soon prove to be too overwhelming for the rookie to be.
Offensive Grade – D+
The Miami Heat rookie didn’t have typical onboarding process, for lack of better terms, and you could see it all throughout his rookie year. When on offense and especially since the Miami Heat wanted to play him as a down low to short corner extended player, he was often times out-muscled, out-positioned, or out-know how’d.
Though he has some development to do on his overall offensive game, confidence wise and discovering his NBA moves, he wasn’t helped along by the typical ability to play against steadily elevating levels of competitions. That is the rookie camps, summer leagues, and preseason, respectively.
He did show some good things though, from an athletic standpoint, and you want to build on that. That’s the foundation that he’s probably building on right now, but also, he needs to really work on catching the ball in traffic as well.
The Miami Heat might have had to lean on their rookie forward, Precious Achiuwa, a bit too much and it showed throughout the year.
Defensive Grade – C-
All things considered, he wasn’t terrible. He’s slightly undersized and hadn’t seen a ton.
The mistakes he made were, actually, pretty understandable. He’ll benefit from added weight, strength, and time in film study.
He has the natural defensive instincts to be a plus defender in the league and you could see those things this season. He actually has a bit more defensive position versatility that he displayed this year too, it’s safe to believe, as he could eventually be a very capable wing defender as well.
Overall Grade – I
While you could tally a final grade based on his grade in each area, it isn’t fair right now for Precious. He didn’t have any of the normal things that a rookie has and was thrust into a, somewhat, meaningful role on a team that was fresh off a run to the NBA Finals.
That was a situation or scenario that no one would envy him for being in as a rookie. With that, it’s only fair that you finalize him with the “I” for incomplete, as of now.
He needs to make strides this offseason though, as with last season being a pass season with the unorthodox nature of it, he definitely needs to show some good stuff in the coming season. That stuff that got him taken at 20 by Miami.