Has Precious Achiuwa Played Himself out of the Sacramento Kings’ Budget?
Precious Achiuwa has been a bright spot for the Sacramento Kings during an otherwise dreadful season for all involved, and he wasn’t even on the team until mid-November. That was already seven games into the regular season.
When Sacramento signed the forward to a one-year $2.4 million deal, they could not have imagined the season would have derailed as badly as it did. More positively, they could not have imagined Achuiwa taking full advantage of the increased minutes and usage due to the influx of injuries found throughout the roster.
In his first five years before coming to Sacramento, Achiuwa averaged 7.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg, and 1.0 apg after being drafted by Miami, floating to Toronto, and finally landing in New York last season.
(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Before the 2025-26 season, he was re-signed by the Heat, but he did not make the cut out of training camp and became a free agent to start the season. He ultimately landed in Sacramento, where first-year general manager Scott Perry thought he could fill in nicely for the recently injured Keegan Murray, while also being a minimal cap hit for only this year.
If Miami were right, and he wasn’t NBA worthy, then no harm, no foul for Sacramento. Well, Achiuwa proved himself as a solid role player this season.
Anyone watching the Sacramento Kings this year could immediately see that he played hard and really wanted to win. He increased his career averages across the board, clearly making a bid for a pay increase next season.
Within the last month, he has played more minutes and has multiple efficient 20+ point performances on his resume.
Precious Achiuwa this Season: 9.6 PPG | 6.5 RPG | 1.3 APG | 53% FG | 23.4 MIN
Now here is the biggest question: Can the Sacramento Kings afford to retain him?
Assuming Sacramento does not exercise ANY team options and they do not re-sign any other expiring contracts, next season the Kings will have around 11 million dollars to work with before they hit the dreaded second apron, which teams have been avoiding like the plague since the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement changed in 2023.
Considering that they will have a lottery pick with a contract and (hopefully) other free agents coming in, let’s assume 5-7 million in space is available.
Now that we know what Sacramento is working with, we need to know how much an improved Precious Achiuwa commands around the league.
In past years, there have been plenty of players with statistics similar to Achiuwa’s who have commanded multi-year deals. Veteran center Andre Drummond had comparable numbers to Achiuwa in Chicago before he signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Andre Drummond 2023-24 statistics (the year before he signed his current contract): 8.4 PPG | 9.0 RPG | 0.5 APG | 55% FG
(Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
Giving Achiuwa 5 million per year would likely put the Sacramento Kings right at the second apron if our other assumptions are correct.
Just for the sake of comparison, let’s look at a player who has proved himself to be invaluable to his team as a role player: Daniel Gafford was a huge part of the Dallas Mavericks’ run to the NBA finals in 2024. His contract increases every year, but he is making roughly $ 17- $ 19 million per year with very similar offensive statistics to Precious.
His defense is considerably better, but is that $12-14 million dollars better?
There are a ton of factors when negotiating contracts in the NBA, and we don’t know how much Precious Achiuwa is looking for, if the Kings want to bring him back, or if he even wants to be here. What we do know is that he is a Beam Boy (trademark pending) and he has shown that he cares about winning basketball games.
He isn’t Andre Drummond, and he definitely is not Daniel Gafford, but my money is on him landing a contract somewhere between the two, whether that is here in Sacramento or on another squad around the league.
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When is the next Sacramento Kings game?
The Sacramento Kings will return home for a two-game homestand that begins Friday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Sacramento is 0-2 against the Pelicans this season, including a 133-123 loss at Golden 1 Center on March 5th, in which Precious Achiuwa scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Be sure to catch all of the Sacramento Kings vs. New Orleans Pelicans action right here on Sactown Sports 1140 AM, with pregame coverage beginning at 2:00 PM PT on The Drive Guys before a 7:00 pm PT tip-off from downtown Sacramento.
Upcoming Sacramento Kings schedule for the 2025-26 season
- Friday, April 3rd vs. New Orleans Pelicans – 7:00 PM PT
- Sunday, April 5th vs. Los Angeles Clippers – 6:00 PM PT
- Tuesday, April 7th @ Golden State Warriors – 7:00 PM PT
- Friday, April 10th vs. Golden State Warriors – 7:00 PM PT
- Sunday, April 12th @ Portland Trail Blazers – 5:30 PM PT
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