Precious Achiuwa Explains How Toronto's Trust Has Helped Him Become a Reliable Three-Point Threat

The Toronto Raptors are trusting Precious Achiuwa to take and make three-pointers this season and it's begun to pay off

For a moment, Precious Achiuwa hesitated.

It was the mistake the Toronto Raptors have been trying to break him of this season. So often early in the year the 22-year-old forward would overthink things. The ball would swing around to him and he'd pause for a split second, think through his options, and then make his move against a defense that had recovered in his slight delay. It was the indecisiveness that had plagued him.

When Fred VanVleet drove to the rim and kicked the ball out to the 6-foot-8 forward in the corner for a wide-open shot, Achiuwa needed to go up with it. Indiana Pacers guard Terry Taylor closed out short on his shot defense, figuring that Achiuwa wouldn't take the three.

He was right.

Achiuwa pump-faked, took two dribbles toward the net, and put up an errant floater. At the ensuing timeout, he got an earful.

"Literally three guys on the bench are like you’ve got to shoot that, you have to," Achiuwa said. "When I came out after the timeout it was like, ‘OK, all right, I’m gonna shoot it.'”

That's been the difference for Achiuwa this season who responded to his teammates with four straight three-pointers against the Pacers, all from above the break, tying his career-high from three-point range. Last season he was put in a box by the Miami Heat. He was 0-for-1 from distance, either unwilling or unable to shoot threes. This season, he's letting it fly.

"It’s a lot of confidence, there’s a lot of trust for those guys to actually just say you’ve got to take those shots," said Achiuwa who is now shooting 36.1% from behind the arc this season and 41.3% from three since the All-Star break. "It just gives the player a different type of confidence to actually take the shots, you know, you're not thinking about anything else. You're just in rhythm, you feel good about the shot, everyone knows in the gym, the teammates, the coaching staff, they feel good about the shots. All it is is just your teammates having that trust in you, honestly."

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