Raptors Report: Precious Achiuwa makes summer-league debut, Isaac Bonga signs and more

LAS VEGAS, NV - AUGUST 11: Precious Achiuwa #5 of the Toronto Raptors shoots the ball against the Golden State Warriors during the 2021 Las Vegas Summer League on August 11, 2021 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2021 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
By Blake Murphy
Aug 12, 2021

LAS VEGAS — As far as first impressions go, the summer-league Toronto Raptors have to hope you saw their tournament opener and that Wednesday wasn’t your first look. Things went a little better for the true debut, Precious Achiuwa, who impressed in his first look with the team.

It was a rough night all-around at the Thomas & Mack Center, with the Raptors coming up on the wrong end of a 90-84 decision against the Golden State Warriors. It was a game low on offensive execution, heavy on turnovers and defined by shooting variance as a deciding factor, not that head coach Patrick Mutombo will let make-or-miss-league rule in the film session between back-to-back games. Even the best of Vegas performances have ups and downs, and while a 1-1 record is nothing to be pessimistic about, it’s helpful there’s another game Thursday to quickly flush this one.

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Achiuwa’s Raptors career opened with a highlight that immediately showed why the Raptors were high on him before the 2020 draft and why they saw him as a suitable return for facilitating the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade. In the game’s opening moments, Achiuwa pulled down a defensive rebound, turned and smoothly drove coast-to-coast for a layup. At 6 foot 8 and 225 pounds, Achiuwa flashed a size-and-skill combination the Raptors have clearly prioritized in their roster-building.

Nick Nurse’s system requests everyone, even the bigs, push in transition as a matter of tempo and advantage-seeking against scrambled defences; the more players who can handle on the break, the better the team will be at turning defence into offence.

“That’s the Toronto Raptors system of play: versatility,” Achiuwa said.

As the rest of the game suggested, that might be a real necessity this season. If the Vegas starters in some combination make up the second unit this season, offence will be at a premium. Things ground to a halt whenever Malachi Flynn hit the bench; Scottie Barnes has great ball skill and passing for his size and experience but isn’t a point guard at this level yet, Dalano Banton has struggled through two games and the roster is heavier on scoring guards than playmaking ones.

Even when Flynn was on the court, spacing was cramped, with only Matt Morgan standing out as a plus shooter in the rotation. Their fourth-quarter near-comeback was in large part fuelled by getting stops and running, which is something any remotely tenured Raptors fan should be familiar with by now.

The half-court offence isn’t an area Achiuwa projects to help yet. As was the book on him in Miami, he struggled to finish around the rim, both on layups and putbacks. That undercut some of his ability to get to high-danger areas, something the Raptors will surely help him hone (and something a true point guard orchestrating could help). Even with a few frustrating misses, Achiuwa finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, demonstrating good instincts on the roll and the offensive glass, just without the touch to truly take advantage.

Achiuwa looks further along on defence, at least against fringe competition. He’s coming off a strong stretch of defensive performances with Nigeria and clearly has the ability to guard across a good chunk of the positional spectrum. There were a few plays where Achiuwa was caught ball-watching or waiting for a chance to contest — defending at the shot rather than before it — but for the most part he was effective, tracking the ball well and cleaning up the glass with 11 rebounds.

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“It’s never easy for new players to come into a new situation,” Mutombo said. “Just trying to learn our system, I think we do a lot of things differently than what people are accustomed to. And it’s gonna take them a little bit of time to get used to it.”

One night in, it’s so far, so good. While single-game plus-minus is pretty low-fidelity in a summer-league environment, it’s worth noting the Raptors were at their best when Achiuwa was on the court. They won his 28 minutes by four points, losing the remaining 12 minutes by 10. There’s some lineup noise there, particularly with Flynn minutes (even). Take the wins where you can get them.

On Wednesday, Achiuwa was the big win for the Raptors, looking the part of a second-year player in a first-year environment despite just two days of practice with his new team. There’s a good base here for the Raptors’ development program to work with the next seven weeks, even more so if Achiuwa buys into being a pseudo five.

Earlier games: Koreen on Barnes’ debut

Cap update, Bonga signing

In case you haven’t been following along with the esoteric salary-cap tweets, a few notes from the last few days:

  • The Raptors will sign Isaac Bonga to a partially guaranteed camp deal, as I reported earlier Wednesday. That puts the roster at 17, plus a presumed 18th spot for Dalano Banton. I’m glad I’m getting extended use of this Bonga clip and that we saw this one coming a while back.

  • Yuta Watanabe’s contract is now guaranteed for $375,000 and will become fully guaranteed for the season if he makes the opening night roster. Ishmail Wainright has a $250,000 guarantee for this season and $125,000 for next season. Sam Dekker’s one-year deal contains a $350,000 guarantee. Freddie Gillespie is the next decision point on the guarantee front, as he’ll lock in for $50,000 on Sept. 5 and for his entire salary on opening night.
  • Watanabe, by the way, was in attendance Wednesday, leaving Goran Dragic as the lone Raptors player not to be present in Vegas at some point. Watanabe’s playing status for Thursday remains up in the air.
  • Those guarantees create a situation that should be very competitive in October. The Raptors have both their two-way spots filled and 16 NBA contracts (including Banton). The final two roster spots are usually the Exhibit 10 class of players, guys who will come into camp and fight for a spot but are likelier to land with Raptors 905. There are also a handful of interesting names remaining on the market if the Raptors wanted to give out another partial guarantee to spice up the camp competition.
  • Gary Trent Jr.’s deal actually came in at $51.84 million with “unlikely” incentives that could push it to $52.59 million. That gives the Raptors an extra $666,000 under the luxury tax to play with since our last update. Trading Goran Dragic could conceivably open up more breathing room, though that’s not a necessity.

Scouting notes

  • Barnes didn’t have quite the showing he had in his debut. Even on a less successful night, it was easy to feel his presence on the game. Most notably, Barnes took 12 free-throw attempts, something that his aggression and strength should allow him to rack up at the next level so long as someone else is helping create the advantages for him. The 2-of-8 shooting night isn’t a major surprise as a bump in the road. More surprising was Barnes struggling a bit on defence, picking up four fouls and getting beat by Jonathan Kuminga a couple of times. All told, Barnes is in good shape two games in. Just don’t watch Jalen Suggs’ putback dunk from right before Toronto’s game.

  • Banton’s night ran the full gamut, as he struggled mightily in the first have before turning in some great minutes later in the game. At this stage, Banton is telegraphing a bit in the half court and making reads a half-beat late for teammates. Even still, his value in transition with his long stride and great handle for his size is obvious. He also was a major factor on the boards with a game-high 12 rebounds, something that speaks to his ability to use length and anticipation where his strength lags.
  • David Johnson had 10 points, four rebounds, four turnovers and a couple of wild closeout attempts. … Freddie Gillespie has had a tough go so far. He had five fouls and was a minus-10 in 12 minutes. At the very least, he recovered from the earlier struggles with an awesome block at the rim on a dunk attempt from Cameron Oliver. … The rotation was just 10 players deep. Anas Mahmoud drew a DNP-CD while Isiaha Mike, Rayshaun Hammonds and Zaccheus Darko-Kelly all sat for the second consecutive game. Ashton Hagans has missed both games with an ankle sprain.

Miscellaneous

  • In the old friend file, Alize Johnson looked solid for the Nets against the Bucks earlier in the day. His energy is always going to be what carries his game, and he added a couple of tough finishes to make the most of his minutes. … Oshae Brissett also has looked good as he fights for his spot with Indiana. Brissett’s defensive game has rounded out and he’s showing much more juice off the bounce than we’ve seen before. Now, to get some shots to drop more consistently.

  • In the CanCon file, Ignas Brazdeikis has looked good enough to land a deal with the Magic. … Caleb Agada, fresh from an Olympic stint with Nigeria, is here with Denver. He is, uhh, not being shy as he tries to become the first USports product to play in the NBA since the 1960s. Agada has taken 25 shots in 42 minutes of action, scoring 21 points with eight rebounds and six assists. … Chris Duarte has been one of the best all-around rookies in Vegas. While that’s what you’d expect from the oldest, most NBA-ready pick, there’s also been an element of tough shot-making that’s encouraging to see as we project forward.
  • We’re about even in limited action at the tables so far this trip. Let’s see if putting some money down on No. 7 — always a safe bet the last nine years — is still an effective strategy.

The Raptors next play the Rockets at 8 p.m. (ET) Thursday.

(Photo of Achiuwa: Garrett Ellwood / NBAE via Getty Images)

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