Former Tiger Precious Achiuwa resigns with the Sacramento Kings

NBA free agency started at 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, but a few hours before it opened, it was announced that former Tiger Precious Achiuwa is resigning with the Sacramento Kings. 

The deal is a two-year, $11.5 million deal, according to Chris Haynes, and he will join a core in Sacramento that looks to improve with several young pieces, including first-round draft pick Darius Acuff.

Achiuwa becomes the second former Tiger to resign with their team after Josh Minott resigned with the Nets on Monday.

The forward signed a one-year deal with the Kings last offseason after spending nearly two years in New York with the Knicks. Achiuwa played in 73 games, making 57 starts, and he averaged 10.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.7 blocks in 23.9 minutes per game.

The 10.1 points is a career high for the former Tiger.

Late in the season, Achiuwa took questions from the media about his future and told reporters he was extremely open to returning to the Kings. Earlier this month, ESPN 1320 Sacramento host James Ham pointed to an Achiuwa return.

“The word I’m hearing is it’s very, very likely that Precious Achiuwa will be back next season,” Ham said.

Before heading west, Achiuwa spent the end of the 2023-24 season and the entire 2024-25 season with the Knicks. In 106 games with New York, he averaged 7.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and an assist in 22.2 minutes per game.

Before signing with New York, he spent three seasons with Toronto. Over three years, Achiuwa came off the bench primarily and averaged 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 21.6 minutes per game. 

He played 153 games with the Raptors, and he made 40 starts.

Achiuwa was drafted with the No. 20 pick in the 2020 draft by the Heat. He spent only one season in Miami and averaged five points and 3.4 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per game.

The forward signed with Memphis as a five-star recruit and the No. 9 player in the class of 2019, and he was part of the No. 1 recruiting class that also featured James Wiseman, Boogie Ellis, Lester Quinones, DJ Jeffries, Damion Baugh and Malcolm Dandridge. 

The forward started all 31 games he played in, and he averaged 15.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, one assist and 1.9 blocks in 30.4 minutes per game. Achiuwa scored 20 or more points in 10 games, and he scored 25 points twice against Ole Miss and Houston.

Achiuwa was named to both the All-Conference and All-Freshman teams, and he was named the conference Player and Rookie of the Year.

The forward enters his seventh NBA season, and it will be interesting to see what type of role he plays next year.