12:27pm: Isaac Jones will likely be waived if the Kings come to an agreement with Achiuwa, Brett Siegel of Clutch Points tweets.
11:31am: The Kings could soon add a veteran big man. They are looking at bringing in Precious Achiuwa, NBA insider Jake Fischer tweets.
Sacramento is off to a 2-4 start and are undersized at the power forward spot. The Kings have been using smaller starting lineups with DeMar DeRozan essentially manning the ‘4’ spot. Overall, they have an underwhelming collection of big men outside of Domantas Sabonis.
With Keegan Murray currently sidelined by a thumb injury, Sabonis is the only guard or wing on the roster averaging more than 3.2 points per game.
Sacramento has a full roster and would have to drop someone to add Achiuwa. He was waived late in training camp by the Heat, who would have been pushed over the luxury tax limit if they had held onto him.
Achiuwa has spent the past five years in the NBA after being selected 20th overall by Miami in the 2020 draft. The 26-year-old has appeared in 320 regular season games with the Heat, Raptors and Knicks over that span, with career averages of 7.6 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per contest. He appeared in 57 regular season games with the Knicks last season, including 10 starts.
However, Achiuwa struggled to find a suitable opportunity in free agency this summer and wound up taking a non-guaranteed contract to rejoin the Heat. Erik Spoelstra discussed Miami’s decision to waive Achiuwa before opening night, citing cap concerns.
“It is tough, especially because we spent time with him four years ago, it felt like we wanted to keep that going,” the longtime Heat coach said. “But that’s just where we are right now with the roster. We’ll have to see what happens in the future.” Achiuwa averaged 4.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per game across four preseason outings.
He would be a great pickup with the absence of Murray and just to depend the bench defensively
“Sabonis is the only guard or wing on the roster averaging more than 3.2 points per game.”
Ok.
Was just about to post the same thing. Think he meant center.
I think he meant non- guard or wing
1. Why Kings traded Fox to Spurs for 2027 top-16 protected first round pick and take LaVine contract?
Why protected? Kings GM knew nothing about value of first round pick.
2. Kings offer Murray $140 million contract and offer younger player Kuminga $63 million contract.
Kings GM knew nothing about value of players
2 different gms did that so maybe Vivek you mean.
I am glad they didn’t offer a good trade for Kuminga. He is playing much better this year than he has done before.
Kings and Pelicans the worst roster every assembled for teams that are trying to win/not tanking.
New GMs are needed because of toughest positions.
Never understood why Isaac Jones got a guaranteed contract anyway
The problem is that the team you’re trying to understand is the Kings
Kings keep changing it up. You have to believe in a core and build around it. I’m not a fan of DeM and Zach. To me they are both solid SGs. But have different gms and strengths. They should both be playing the 2. Also I love Sabonis. But I see him as a top 4 in NBA. He can play C. I have a rim protector next to him. Let him dominate on offense.
DeM is the one you have to trade cause of his age. You can get good value for him.
For the life of me I cannot figure out why the kings signed Lavine and derozen. 3 seasons together in Chicago showed that a team with these 2 as your stars has a ceiling of 7th seed. “Light the beam”? more like light the whole place up and burn it to the ground…
I always bring up this fact in regards to LaVine: he’s made the playoffs once in his entire career (I’m not counting play-in games). Yes, basketball is a team sport, but LaVine is allegedly a star player. This is his 12th season and he’s played in four playoff games in the easiest league in existence to make the playoffs in. He’s put up some incredible stats but he’s either the unluckiest player in the league or his style of play is not conducive to winning basketball. It’s almost impossible to be in the league that long and only make the playoffs once (and get bounced immediately).
How the Kings looked at him and decided to make him a cornerstone of their franchise is beyond me.