Raptors' Precious Achiuwa out indefinitely

Raptors big man Precious Achiuwa suffered partial ligament tears in his right ankle, the team announced. According to Toronto, Achiuwa will wear a walking boot for the next 10 days and has been ruled out indefinitely.

The 23-year-old underwent an MRI Wednesday night after Toronto’s win over Houston, which confirmed the injury, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link).

The 20th overall pick of the 2020 draft, Achiuwa has averaged 8.8 points and a career-high 7.0 rebounds in 12 games (20.4 minutes) for the 7-5 Raptors this season, though his three-point percentage has cratered in the early going — he shot a very solid 35.9% from deep in 2021-22 and is at 17.9% thus far. The Raptors picked up their ’23-24 team option on the fourth year of his rookie contract last month, so he will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer.

Achiuwa is an important bench cog for a Toronto team that is already shorthanded in the frontcourt, with All-NBA forward Pascal Siakam (adductor strain) and center Khem Birch (right knee) currently sidelined. As Lewenberg notes (via Twitter), rookie center Christian Koloko, big man Chris Boucher, and veteran forwards Thaddeus Young and Otto Porter are likely to receive an uptick in playing time with Achiuwa out.

It’s unclear how long Achiuwa will be sidelined, since indefinitely is a vague timeline (the Raptors might not know), but it sounds like he could be out for at least several weeks given the nature of his injury.