3 Knicks Who Won’t Return for the 2024 Season

2. Precious Achiuwa

When the Knicks acquired Precious Achiuwa as a throw-in from Toronto in the OG Anunoby trade, his purpose was to give the team a few minutes per game off the bench and supply some depth at the four spot behind Julius Randle and OG Anunoby. 

Yet when both were dealing with ailments, Achiuwa was forced into massive minutes for the second half of the season and the playoffs. In that span, there were a few of his deficiencies that stood out and that cost the Knicks in the final series with the Pacers. 

For one thing, Achiuwa was not a reliable and consistent scoring option to be a true heavy minutes player. In 49 games with New York, he averaged 7.6 points on 50.1% shooting from the field, but he held just nine contests with at least 10 points and one with over 20 scored. His free throw shooting was even more abysmal, converting as low as 36.1% from the charity stripe in the postseason. 

The  Knicks were lacking size after Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson went down in the playoffs and they tried to rely on Achiuwa to be the No. 2 glass cleaner alongside Isaiah Hartenstein to no avail. His season average wasn’t bad at 6.6 per contest but against more lengthy opponents like the Pacers, Achiuwa couldn’t overcome the deficit and help the team earn second chances that could have carried them through the arduous series where rebounding determined the winner each game. 

While he did a nice job of filling in and growing into a tough defensive player in the Knicks system, there isn’t enough overall value to entice them to commit to Achiuwa long-term. New York is also committed to Robinson and set to offer an early bird rights contract to Hartenstein in the offseason, meaning the restricted free agent in Achiuwa could look for a new home that’ll offer him minutes and slightly more money and the Knicks can address his hole in the draft.