Precious Achiuwa Has Likely Played His Final Games with the Knicks

Acquired in the OG Anunoby trade last January, Precious Achiuwa has been the primary backup power forward for the New York Knicks.

He has made spot starts because of injuries, his defensive effort is always reliable, and his versatility to play power forward and center has been valuable to the Knicks on many occasions. However, since Mitchell Robinson and Jalen Brunson are back from injuries, it is not surprising to see Achiuwa’s minutes start to decrease or not play at all.

Achiuwa is on a one-year contract, so with his lack of play toward the end of the season, it looks like he will not be in a Knicks uniform in 2025-26.

Not a part of the rotation?

Since Mitchell Robinson returned on Feb. 28, Achiuwa has averaged 14 minutes per game and had four DNPs.

Before Robinson returned, Achiuwa averaged 22.8 minutes per game, but during that stretch, he still had a plus-minus of negative 40. Plus-minus is not a great start to measure individual play, but over a 37-game span for a bench player on a 50-win team, it has some significance.

This week, he did not play against the Phoenix Suns or in an overtime game against the Boston Celtics. Tom Thibodeau has instead used a nine-man rotation, with a bench consisting of Landry Shamet, Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson, and Cameron Payne. Against the Celtics, Thibs chose not to play Shamet in the second half and went with an eight-man rotation to finish the game.

Reasons behind Precious Achiuwa’s benching

Delon Wright extended his run for five games when Payne, McBride, and Jalen Brunson were all out with injuries, and he did an excellent job covering. Achiuwa has not had those same impactful fill-in games when Towns or Robinson were not playing. Recently, Achiuwa had one of the worst games of his career vs. the Philadelphia 76ers in Towns’ absence.