Precious ‘a young Bam,’ gives Heat added heft
Heat president Pat Riley opened his post-NBA Draft Zoom session with local reporters by announcing the Heat got exactly what it was looking for.
“I felt tonight that we did very well, and we’re very pleased and very happy with our pick,” Riley said before he even took the first question late Wednesday night.
The pick? The Heat selected Memphis big man Precious Achiuwa with the 20th pick in this year’s draft, which was con
ducted virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic from ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Connecticut.
That was Miami’s only selection in this year’s draft.
“We were looking for bigs like him that are quick, that are athletic, that could run, that can handle,” Riley said. “Obviously, he’s an explosive player, plays above the rim. We just were very, very impressed with him and he was in our wheelhouse and when we had an opportunity
to draft him with his name still on the board, we were very excited.
“We think he probably is one of the most underrated players in the draft, and I think most likely — you could argue this — but the people debated that he may be the most athletic player in the draft; he has a real good upside. A lot of talent and we’re just very excited to have him, and I think he fits in perfectly with how we want to play, he fits in perfectly with Spo’s system on defense. He can play four positions defensively. He gets out on the break. He’s a rim-runner. So, I’m just excited that at 20, that we could find a player that is that good and of that kind of quality.”
The Heat’s pick helps to strengthen its power rotation. Achiuwa (6-9, 225), who turned 21 in September, averaged 15.8
points while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 13 of 40 on threes, 10.8 rebounds, one assist and
1.9 blocks as a freshman at Memphis last season to earn the AAC Player of the Year honor.
“There are three things that stand out,” said Riley, who noted that he didn’t witness Achiuwa’s private workout with the Heat but did watch extensive film on him leading up to the draft. “His speed. He’s a coast-tocoast player that comes off the boards with tremendous explosiveness to get down on the court. He can go rim to rim with the ball. He’s a shot blocker. He’s quick. I think what you see is a real incredible athlete here that’s young, that has a great upside. ... He’s long. He has got a 7-2 wingspan. He has got a 38-inch vertical.”
Achiuwa fills a need for Miami, especially considering center Meyers Leonard will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and center Kelly Olynyk only has one season remaining on his contract with the Heat even after opting in to his player option for next season on Thursday, as expected.
The Heat relied on smaller lineups during its playoff run to the NBA Finals last
season, but adding an athletic big man such as Achiuwa to the roster who has the skill set to defend multiple positions, rebound and serve as a physical interior presence either alongside All-Star center Bam Adebayo or when Adebayo is on the bench will help.
Retired Heat great Dwyane Wade said Wednesday night on NBA TV when asked about the selection of Achiuwa: “Just talking to my best friend, my brother Udonis Haslem, who is the captain over there. We talked about what the Heat needs, and the one thing we talked about was Bam. Bam is taking a beating down there. So to have somebody that can come in and kind of play the same way. He’s a young Bam. Coming in, Bam couldn’t shoot early on. He was real athletic, great roller to the rim, great shot blocker. Then with the Heat’s ability to make sure they put the work in with these players and teach them the NBA game slowly, this kid can develop into what Bam has now developed into. I love this pick for us because it’s something that we need and something that Bam needs to continue to stay at that All-Star level.”
While rebounding wasn’t a glaring weakness for Miami in the regular season, it was outrebounded 270-225 and 70-39 on the
offensive glass in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“This guy can play,” Riley said of Achiuwa. “What’s his upside? We’ll find out what his upside is going to be. But we’re very excited that at 20, we can fill a spot. I think in the playoffs there was a time when size hurt us. Offensive rebounding, the paint, shot blocking all of those things that we might have somebody here that can fill that void.”
Along with his potential to become a versatile and switchable 6-9 defender, Achiuwa also has offensive upside to eventually develop a reliable outside shot and even make plays off the dribble, but he shot just 59.9 percent from the foul line in his lone college season. Achiuwa also finished with 87 turnovers to 30 assists at Memphis last season, and he’s expected to make more of an impact as a rim-runner and roll man around the basket early in his NBA career.
“One of the things about athletic bigs like him is a lot of times they have instincts, guard instincts, perimeter instincts and they probably even want to be a point guard, they want to be a three,” Riley said. “Once he understands — and comes into this league — that his best position is probably going to be four or five, we’ll work with him. But he also has some
perimeter skills. He’s a very good ball-handler. He can tighten up on everything. Everything has to be tightened up through repetition and repetition. But has the ability to shoot the ball from outside.”
Sound familiar? Achiuwa enters the NBA with a similar skill set to Adebayo, who was drafted by the Heat with the 14th pick in 2017.
“A lot of similarities, the same size, just versatile, being able to guard multiple positions, bringing a lot of energy to the game,” Achiuwa said of comparisons to Adebayo. “And I just look forward to learning from him every day, constantly developing my game and just asking questions and learning.”
Memphis’ coaching staff, which included former
Heat player Mike Miller as an assistant coach last season, had Achiuwa study Adebayo’s film because of the similarities between the two.
“When Bam came here, he had a limited menu of things that coach Spo gave him in the beginning because you didn’t want to confuse him with too much stuff and just let them play with great energy and rebound and defend and all of those things that come natural to him,” Riley said. “We’ll do the same thing with Precious. We won’t force him to be something that he’s not. But I think we
can get the best out of him. I don’t think there’s a better team in the league that develops players in a conscientious manner than we do. I’m not saying that he’s going to be a knockdown, three-point shooter, but he can. He has a nice stroke. In the NBA, that might not be the thing that we want from him in the beginning.”
Achiuwa’s rebounding, shot blocking, defensive versatility, size and athleticism is what will help the Heat in the beginning.
Riley hopes that eventually Achiuwa and Adebayo will be able to play together. But early on, most of Achiuwa’s minutes are expected to come when Adebayo is on the bench because both players score most of their points in the paint and having both on the floor at the same time could create offensive issues.
Achiuwa is facing a steep learning curve, with the accelerated schedule forcing first-year players to begin training camp with their new teams about two weeks after the draft on Dec. 1 for a Dec. 22 start to the 2020-21 season. Achiuwa said he has not played organized basketball since his final college game on March 8 before the season was stopped because of the pandemic.
“If you watch him play, he could almost help anybody if you want to get out and pressure and run and open up the floor, that kind of stuff,” Riley said when asked about the long layoff and what it will mean for Achiuwa’s rookie NBA season. “But we’ll see. It’s going be hard on every single draft choice to come in. But look, if you’re hungry and you want to be in the NBA, and you just got picked at No. 20 by the Miami Heat and there’s a spot for you somewhere, then you’ll compete for it and you’ll get yourself as ready as you can.”
Achiuwa, who moved to the United States from Nigeria in middle school, grew up playing soccer. He switched his focus to basketball in eighth grade after leaving Nigeria.
Fewer than 10 years later, Achiuwa will work to show he was an NBA steal at pick No. 20.
“I’m a player that is ready to do whatever it takes to win a basketball game,” Achiuwa said. “In the past, it’s going for loose balls, rebounding, blocking shots and switching ball screens, guarding multiple positions. That’s something that I’ve done and going forward that’s something that I look forward to doing, whatever my team needs to win basketball games.”