Precious Achiuwa contract details, grade: Knicks round out prolific offseason with essential rotation cog

The New York Knicks put the finishing touch on an incredible offseason Tuesday afternoon, inking Precious Achiuwa to a one-year, $6 million contract. There were rumors of multiple teams interested in the 24-year-old, but New York strikes up a risk-free deal to plug a glaring hole in the depth chart. It's great to be the incumbent team, especially if you're the Knicks. Everybody is taking discounts in NYC this summer.

Achiuwa is a bit tricky to get a handle on in terms of long-term valuation. He's 24 and he's a plainly special athlete, listed at 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds. Achiuwa has the strength of an ox and enough foot speed to stick with guards on the perimeter. His versatility and physicality were useful for the Knicks last season, and he even got consistent burn in the playoffs.

Still, Achiuwa is undersized for a center and he's not enough of a shooter (26.8 percent from 3-point range) to consistently command the four spot. Not in most lineups, at least. The Knicks don't have a floor-spacing five to unclog the middle of the floor for Achiuwa, so he will need to rely on sheer toughness and bully ball to overcome the height differential in a lot of matchups. Thankfully, he's capable of that fairly often.

The Knicks' financial flexibility was extremely limited after trading for Mikal Bridges, re-upping OG Anunoby, and working out that miracle extension for Jalen Brunson. It's unclear if Achiuwa took a real discount here, or if his market simply collapsed, but 24-year-old rotation pieces don't often come this cheap. He's not the most exciting option to "replace" Isaiah Hartenstein (Mitchell Robinson will get starting nods), but Achiuwa addresses a need and shores up the weakest point of New York's depth chart.

Precious Achiuwa will serve as the Knicks' full-time backup center next season

Achiuwa was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Knicks midseason in the Immanuel Quickley-OG Anunoby deal. Essentially a throw-in for salary purposes, Achiuwa carved out a significant role despite New York's established 7-footers, aided in part by Robinson's injury status. Achiuwa was rock-solid, averaging 7.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks on .525/.260/.643 splits in 24.2 minutes with the Knicks. He appeared in 49 games (18 starts) after the trade.

This isn't the sexy, big-name addition New York fans craved. Finding a way to pry Walker Kessler out of Utah would have been the dream, but Achiuwa was always the more probable outcome. It's a math game at this point in the offseason and New York's limited trade assets after the Bridges deal restricted their ability to negotiate trades or take back salaries.

Achiuwa should see even more consistent minutes this season with Hartenstein out of the picture. He is also essential depth for the Knicks, as Robinson has numerous injuries on his ledger. Achiuwa starting at the five would not be an ideal setup for New York, but he's one of the more intriguing backups in the league, primarily due to his untapped upside.

It's hard to find "bigs" who move as well as Achiuwa while possessing that much strength. He also flashes shooting range out to the 3-point line and real face-up ability. He hasn't quite put all those pieces together into a coherent product yet, but if Achiuwa can polish his decision-making, hammer out the 3-point stroke, and lean into his versatility as a defender, he could make $6 million look like a favor.

This is a strong, if unremarkable end to what has been a remarkable offseason for the Knicks. This team is (unfortunately for 76ers fans, like myself) very much the 'real deal.'