Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Some now must weigh how to spend offseason
Olympics and summer league on deck for developmental players
Precious Achiuwa never got his chance last summer. Because of that, it limited his chances this past season.
Now, with the first opportunity to participate in summer league, the Miami Heat’s 2020 first-round pick could find himself half a world away when the league reconvenes for its most significant development period of the offseason.
As part of the pandemic-related shift across the sporting calendar, not only did Achiuwa’s draft class have to wait until November to join the NBA, but the 2020 Tokyo Games were shifted to this summer.
As a potential member of the Nigerian national team, which already has qualified for the Games, it could leave Achiuwa with a hard choice: go for Olympic gold or develop his game in advance of his second NBA season.
“Right now,” said the 6-foot-8 power forward drafted at No. 20 out of the University of Memphis,
“it’s just weighing my options, taking things into consideration.”
It stands as a potential busy summer for several members of the Heat’s season-ending roster. Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson are in the USA Basketball pool. Two-way guard Gabe Vincent already has spent time as a member of the Nigerian team. Big-man prospect Omer Yurtseven is on the verge of reporting to camp with Turkey’s national team, which will compete in the late-June Olympic qualifying tournament in Canada. And veteran center Nemanja Bjelica will report for service with Serbia’s national team, which is hosting a pre-Olympic qualifier.
For the veterans, the decision on entering the Olympic process is a matter a weighing competition versus recuperation.
But for players such as Achiuwa, Yurtseven and Vincent, it would mean being away from the Heat for the heart of the team’s offseason developmental process.
The Olympic basketball tournament in Tokyo is scheduled to run from July 25 through Aug. 7. The NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League is scheduled for Aug. 8 to Aug. 17, with teams holding summer camps in advance.
“Right now,” Achiuwa said, “I have time on my hands to kind of just weigh my options and see where I go from there.”
He appreciates that both events hold value.
Of the Olympics, the native of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, said, “It’s arguably the biggest thing that comes in sports in general, and just playing on that stage, representing wherever you’re from, whatever country it is, it’s big. It’s a huge honor, just being able to play there. It’s something I don’t think anyone would really think twice about.”
Of summer league, he said, “I think playing in summer league is going to help clear things up a little bit for me, just get a better feel of understanding the NBA game, the system, especially on the defensive end.”
Vincent said getting into meaningful competition could provide its own development.
“This summer could be a great opportunity for me to play against some high-level competition and continue to grow my game,” he said, with the Nigerian national team to train in advance of the Olympics in Las Vegas alongside Team USA. “It’s very different doing drills with cones and playing some open gyms, when you’re playing games that are intense and extremely meaningful.”
Vincent said there still will be time for the Heat’s offseason program back at AmericanAirlines Arena before the start of camp, with the league looking to get back on a traditional schedule next season.
“Coming back with the Heat, we’re going to work hard, we’re going to find time to work and get better,” he said.
Yurtseven, brought in specifically for developmental purposes, said he is looking forward to working both with his national team and the Heat.
“I’m ready for all the work, all the grind,” he said. “It’s been a grind and it’s just getting started, too.”
With the NBA season ending late, with the Olympics intervening, with summer league following, and with free agency coming in the middle of it all, it basically continues to what has been a two-year whirlwind.
“It’s a tough schedule,” Bjelica, an impending free agent said, “but it is what it is.”