Knicks reserve power forward/center Precious Achiuwa has strained his left hamstring, and will be shelved for at least the next 2-4 weeks, New York has announced (Twitter link). At that point, the 6’8″ big man will have the ailment reassessed.
This is a big blow for New York’s frontcourt depth, compounding the health issues the team was already facing in that department to kick off its 2024/25 season. New York was already going to be without well-compensated backup center Mitchell Robinson until at least January.
Losing Robinson and now Achiuwa means the Knicks will have to lean on deeper-bench options behind All-Star starting five Karl-Anthony Towns, with Jericho Sims seemingly the likeliest player to benefit from a major minutes uptick. 7-foot rookie center Ariel Hukporti, the No. 58 pick in this year’s draft, could conceivably even get a look.
As James L. Edwards of The Athletic notes, the Knicks’ bench will be exceedingly green to start the year. Only three reserve New York players have prior NBA playing experience.
New York first acquired Achiuwa as part of its trade for presumptive small ball starting power forward OG Anunoby midway through 2023/24. He proved his mettle as a talented two-way presence in the paint for a 50-win Knicks squad. Across his 49 contests with the Knicks (18 starts), Achiuwa posted encouraging averages of 7.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.1 BPG and 0.6 SPG.
The Memphis alum earned a one-year, $6MM deal to stick with New York as a free agent this summer.
New York’s starting unit of Towns, Anunoby, All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson, 3-and-D shooting guard Josh Hart, newly-acquired All-Defensive Team small forward Mikal Bridges is shaping up to be one of the most fearsome in the entire league. With these health issues already emerging, it remains to be seen whether how head coach Tom Thibodeau will balance leaning heavily on his starters for early wins with the team’s bigger postseason aspirations.
4th place in east at best
MORE minutes for KAT
KAT trade immediately destroyed NYKs chances
It was kinda the Bridges trade, before signing a backup / (pseudo-starter?) big, before being hard-capped at the 2nd apron.
They could have thrown $5M at Drummond, then trade Bogi & Shake Milton to the Nets and take on the hard-cap. Maybe they don’t feel compelled to trade for KAT at the expense of losing two rotation players, one of which being their best move-3pt shooter last year in Donte.
Also, what’s up with Bridges’ jumpshot? That thing was fugly in the preseason.
Crap, Precious was an iron man last year. Hopefully he’s ready sometime in November. I doubt we make any deals, it’s time for Sims and Hukporti to show out.
After this season, we’ll all look back and say that the mistake was to not retain Hartenstein, even If that meant letting go of Devincenzo and/or Hart to squeeze Hartenstein in under the cap.
This lineup is superior to any they’ll have in 2024-25:
Hartenstein + Randle + OG + Bridges + Brunson
Sorry but your take is outdated and plain wrong and I’m tired of people still saying this so long after. Did IHart leaving pave the way for many of the other moves and changes, yes. He fit perfectly and everyone wanted him to come back. But NYK was limited to offering IHart around 17 mil/year per cba rules. It didn’t matter what other money they could have freed up, they offered him the max they could and he walked for the much bigger bag + great team. Sucks, but time to move on.
The mistake with Hartenstein was not giving him an extension before the 2023-24 season. The Knicks let him play out the last year of his deal and that ended with him having an early bird-rights max number at like $72.5m total for a new contract from the Knicks, no matter what. So him having to fill in for Mitch, plus the way Thibs loves to use his bigs, got Hartenstein extra looks around the league – in a year where the Knicks were capped at $72.5m for him.
So in steps another team offering more, and the Knicks can’t match.
Big blow here. And you can’t bring him back too soon. Cause then a hammy can hurt you all season. I would sign a PF.
I’ve said Sims and Hukporti will have to play well. Now they really have to. I can see them keeping Warren now. I’d still like to see them sign a 4.
Warren and Toppin are only players here with some size and experience.
Knicks still have a move to make. They can use McBride n Mitch to bring in two bigs. But I wait before I do this …..,
Still this sucks …….
I said it from the draft. To watch Hukporti. Cause he at 22yrs old and playing in Europe. Can help us at backup C. Now he can play with Towns some.
Thibs magic coming ……
Knicks still have picks they can trade for a big. Center or PF. Or use in a bigger trade. Not panicking yet. But I don’t like having my starters playing big mins to start the season.