12:27pm: Isaac Jones will likely be waived if the Kings come to an agreement with Achiuwa, Brett Siegel of Clutch Points tweets.
11:31am: The Kings could soon add a veteran big man. They are looking at bringing in Precious Achiuwa, NBA insider Jake Fischer tweets.
Sacramento is off to a 2-4 start and are undersized at the power forward spot. The Kings have been using smaller starting lineups with DeMar DeRozan essentially manning the ‘4’ spot. Overall, they have an underwhelming collection of big men outside of Domantas Sabonis.
With Keegan Murray currently sidelined by a thumb injury, Sabonis is the only guard or wing on the roster averaging more than 3.2 points per game.
Sacramento has a full roster and would have to drop someone to add Achiuwa. He was waived late in training camp by the Heat, who would have been pushed over the luxury tax limit if they had held onto him.
Achiuwa has spent the past five years in the NBA after being selected 20th overall by Miami in the 2020 draft. The 26-year-old has appeared in 320 regular season games with the Heat, Raptors and Knicks over that span, with career averages of 7.6 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per contest. He appeared in 57 regular season games with the Knicks last season, including 10 starts.
However, Achiuwa struggled to find a suitable opportunity in free agency this summer and wound up taking a non-guaranteed contract to rejoin the Heat. Erik Spoelstra discussed Miami’s decision to waive Achiuwa before opening night, citing cap concerns.
“It is tough, especially because we spent time with him four years ago, it felt like we wanted to keep that going,” the longtime Heat coach said. “But that’s just where we are right now with the roster. We’ll have to see what happens in the future.” Achiuwa averaged 4.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per game across four preseason outings.