ockingsfan
Starter
Kings sign Precious Achiuwa, waive Issac Jones
Sources: Kings, Achiuwa agree to one-year deal
The Kings have agreed to a one-year veteran minimum deal with center Precious Achiuwa, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania.
Kings sign Precious Achiuwa
- Thread starter ockingsfan
- Start date
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Didn't add any size either. He plays the 5.
I also notice the over emphasis on age comparisons again. Jones is a very low mileage player with as much potential as several similar rotation players in the league.....but of course you would have to invest some playing time in him to develop that ability
SLAB
Hall of Famer
We cut an “old” young guy for a guy who’s less than a year older and has actually proven something in the league.
The Kings suck. The roster is trash. IJ is not the player to be that breaking point.
IJ may turn out be a deep bench big one day but it’s much more likely he’s a g league/out the league guy in the next few years.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
This signing certainly is, well...Precious!!!
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
If IJ ends up being Precious Achiuwa, that’s a player development success story. I guess the Kings decided to just skip to the finish line there lol
didn't you already make that joke yesterday? negative 5 stars!
I don't like it because it kills a feel good story. Basketball wise I think it probably makes sense. Front office, trade maneuvering and cap wise, it makes lots of sense.
It sucks that business trumps all else, but that's modern sports and has been for my entire adult life.
It sucks that business trumps all else, but that's modern sports and has been for my entire adult life.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
Yeah, but it wasn't official. This one's official! +10 stars!
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
If sports were not a business, we'd have multiple banners hanging up in the G1C.
He is listed as both. I think he has spent more time at the 4 over his career, and even NBA 2k has PF as his primary position.
It's all meaningless if Keegan spends the bulk of his time at the 4 though.
From the Sacramento Knights or something?
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
He will play about as much 4 as Sabonis has for the Kings
Padrino
All-Star
I maintain that this franchise is absolutely allergic to the very notion of player development. It spans front office regimes and ownership groups. The Kings dip out early on their homegrown talent with alarming frequency. And even when they hold onto their young talent, they find ways to stunt its growth. Keon Ellis represents such a success story as an undrafted acquisition... and he can barely log consistent minutes despite Doug Christie being present the last few years to witness Ellis' rising potential.
Was Isaac Jones likely to become a similar success story? Probably not. However, he's another in a long line of the Kings' developmental interests that get chucked out in favor of shortcutting the process and "skipping to the finish line", as you say. Achiuwa is a decent signing with Keegan out injured, but it's all so ridiculous that it's happening now. They knew they were logjammed in the backcourt, and they knew they lacked frontcourt depth, but they focused all of their attention on 37-year-old Russell Westbrook before the season opener. And now they're dumping one of their own developmental program's investments for a similar player who's a bit further along the developmental track. Why not just waive Saric? Even if Jones is no great loss, it's still astonishingly backwards asset management.
Kingz19
Hall of Famer
Good pick up.
he’s the type of depth forward the Kings should’ve had the last few years. A far better version of Metu who the Kings failed to properly replace even though that should’ve been easy to do..and it was necessary to do as the Beam Team winningest/best defensive rotations regularly had Metu in them. Metu wasn’t a very good player but it’s absolutely necessary to have guys like that, and to play them.
As I said in the other thread. If IJ was ever to pan out as a rotation player, he would likely at best be the guy Precious Achiuwa already is. IJ wasn’t close to that and they’re virtually the same age.
If a 25-26 year old is still a “project” than they likely aren’t worth the time developing.
Thats what bothered me(among other things) about the Monte era. I absolutely support using later first and second round picks on upperclassmen, but usually because they’re supposed to be undervalued NBA ready talent.
But then they draft these 24 year old rookies and then treat them like developmental projects. It pissed me off.
Welcome to Sacramento, Precious Achiuwa.
he’s the type of depth forward the Kings should’ve had the last few years. A far better version of Metu who the Kings failed to properly replace even though that should’ve been easy to do..and it was necessary to do as the Beam Team winningest/best defensive rotations regularly had Metu in them. Metu wasn’t a very good player but it’s absolutely necessary to have guys like that, and to play them.
As I said in the other thread. If IJ was ever to pan out as a rotation player, he would likely at best be the guy Precious Achiuwa already is. IJ wasn’t close to that and they’re virtually the same age.
If a 25-26 year old is still a “project” than they likely aren’t worth the time developing.
Thats what bothered me(among other things) about the Monte era. I absolutely support using later first and second round picks on upperclassmen, but usually because they’re supposed to be undervalued NBA ready talent.
But then they draft these 24 year old rookies and then treat them like developmental projects. It pissed me off.
Welcome to Sacramento, Precious Achiuwa.
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I'll say the same thing that I said on draft day. It's not the move itself that upsets me, it's the methodology that it represents. My take on the draft was that it was our big chance to cut some of the dead weight and signal a clear shift toward playing the young guys more. Nique Clifford looks like he was a great pick up but absent any other moves he's stuck playing out of position at SF and he's averaging 4 shot attempts per game while our other young SG Keon Ellis has seen his minutes drop even more than last season (after fans cited his lack of playing time as one of the biggest reasons for firing Mike Brown) and our other other young SG Devin Carter, a lottery pick a year and a half ago, is barely even getting garbage minutes on one of the worst defensive squads in the league even though his skillset is exactly what this team is missing.
@Padrino gets it. This is a lateral move at best and it represents our franchise once again giving up on a guy before they even give him a real chance in favor of a veteran player who is capped out as basically the same guy minus any chance of being better. It's why we have Dennis Schröder at PG now instead of Davion Mitchell and why we have Russell Westbrook and Zach LaVine starting for us in a season where we're going to miss the playoffs. And more importantly, it pretty much kills any hope that our GM understands what needs to happen for this team to take the next step. He's obviously chasing 40 wins here and another finish in the late lottery when everything about our salary cap situation and on court performance screams "selll! sell! sell!" and play the kids.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
It's a desperation move. They flailed around with Cardwell and IJ with no effect on winning so now they throw in a one dimensional Precious to fill the breach. It just tells me management/ownership is still in denial. They will continue to throw crap against the wall until the win-loss record pounds them into submission. Or maybe they continue with the crap against the wall until they are mathematically out of the play-in race, in which case our hopes for big trades in January probably go bye-bye.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
IJ is a good story but he can’t defend, shoot or rebound. He is a 5 that needs a couple more years of development and even then it’s a long shot. We have two young 5s that have a distinct skill that could be more useful to this team moving forward: Cardwell (elite defense and athleticism) and Max (floor stretching and offense).
As others have mentioned, Precious is basically the same age, a proven NBA player and can/has played the 4.
As others have mentioned, Precious is basically the same age, a proven NBA player and can/has played the 4.
I actually think Cardwell being able to contribute meaningfully despite his obvious limitations is probably the real reason IJ became expendable. We have to work Maxime in too, and whether folks want to roll their eyes or not, Vivek is not going to tank the season. Though we may have finally reached the year where we can't keep up even with the 10-12 teams in the conference.
It's once again a "process" issue for me.
Why did we spend the last 2 off-seasons with IJ then? Why use those resources on him just to cut him before we see if he's actually an NBA player or not? Because he proved he's better than the G-League/Summer league competition and has seen steady progress since we picked him up as a UDFA. The only thing left was to see what he did with an NBA role.
Precious is fine and he'll make us better "right now". But that's once again the issue; you still had a mystery box of on IJ; instead, we're playing for the next 70 games and not worrying about what the next 3 years looks like
You mean like Queta?
You develop guys because you hope to hit a home run.
Also, you develop guys because sometimes you get rotation-level players for bargain prices for a few years. (e.g. Keon)
But if you develop a guy, and then decide after two years that his ceiling is about replacement level, then it's really OK to let them go and get the guy that's replacement level now. That's not a waste of resources - you used your resources on a chance, and that chance didn't pan out. Like many before him. It's the name of the game.
We seem to be acting like we're cutting a major future asset for minimal benefit now, but are we? I've never really been on the IJ hype train, to be honest, and the org has had two years to see what his development looks like. They seem comfortable cutting ties. Doug seemed comfortable NOT PLAYING HIM when we went a whole game without even fielding a forward (after yanking him after a one-minute stint the game before). We need a player like IJ in our lineup right now, and he still can't crack the floor. These are very writing-on-the-wall signs. Yes, we would all like for IJ to be the Next Great Thing, but wanting doesn't make it so.
I think the biggest difference with Queta is his rim protection translates in the big league. I’m not really sure what IJ can do that translates offensively, plus he’s a liability defensively. Maybe if he became a better shooter? I’m rooting for him but I think it’s a long shot he’s ever a rotation player.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
The point is that the Kings also let Queta go, after spending a couple seasons of development. Would you rather have him right now, or Eubanks?
Jdbraver137
Bench
Queta is a liability. He is far too slow and cannot do anything except take up space. Some of you romanticize the x-kings like no other franchise.
Is Queta better than Eubanks? I think that’s debatable. He provides solid rim protection but is pretty much a liability everywhere else. Queta leaving was under much different circumstances vs IJ.
SLAB
Hall of Famer
Why take years to maybe but probably not develop Precious Achiuwa … when you can just have Precious Achiuwa?
IJ is simply not a worthwhile mystery box. He’s basically the same age as Precious, so why waste more time trying to develop a guy who *might* become the player we can just pick up for free(
If IJ was 21. If IJ had ever had a game like the 25/15/5 game that Precious had last season. If IJ had a single standout trait (like Caldwell’s defense) than maybe just *maybe* it’s worth the process and development. But IJ is not that dude.
He was a below minimum level signing Boston made who only had 4 appearances during their championship run. Now that they are basically in an injury + cap induced tank year he is getting extra run, and he's still just "serviceable".
Granted I'd have rather hung onto him than trotted McGee out there but this is definitely not a case of losing out and I'd rather develop Cardwell or Maxime than Queta in 2025.