After spending his first season at the Miami Heat in the NBA, Precious Achiuwa has made a return to the franchise. The Heat had selected Achiuwa 20th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft.
The center/forward has now agreed to a one-year deal with the Heat, as per ESPN sources.
The Heat had traded Precious Achiuwa to the Toronto Raptors for Kyle Lowry in the 2021 offseason. The 26-year-old had averaged 6.5 rebounds in 2021-22 and averaged 9.2 points per game in 2022-23, and both are his career highs, as reported by CBS Sports. ESPN stated that Achiuwa has featured in 320 career games, having averaged 7.6 points and 5.7 rebounds.
Achiuwa’s signing is the latest in a series of former Memphis Tigers players, who featured under coach Penny Hardaway in college basketball, completing new moves in recent times. Here is a look at some of those key signings.
James Wiseman
The Indiana Pacers decided to re-sign James Wiseman on a two-year contract. Wiseman, the second overall pick in the 2020 draft, kicked off his career with the Golden State Warriors. Wiseman had signed with the Pacers in July last year but suffered an injury in October 2024. He played only five minutes of the Pacers’ season opener against the Detroit Pistons and was out for the season after surgery on his left Achilles tendon, reported Reuters. Wiseman was subsequently traded to the Toronto Raptors in February this year.
David Jones-Garcia
David Jones-Garcia agreed on a two-way NBA contract with the San Antonio Spurs in July. He had averaged 21.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists for the Spurs in five summer league games in Las Vegas, reported commercialappeal.com. The former first-team all-conference guard (2023-24) had agreed to a two-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, having gone undrafted last year.
Emoni Bates
Emoni Bates signed for the 76ers earlier this month. He featured in 25 games over the past two seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2023-25 and averaged 3.1 points in 8.3 minutes, per commercialappeal.com.
Lester Quinones
Former Memphis guard Lester Quinones’ signing for the Orlando Magic was announced earlier this month. Quinones had made 54 career NBA regular season appearances with Golden State, Philadelphia and New Orleans and averaged 4.8 ppg., 1.7 rpg. and 1.1 apg. in 11.0 min pg, as claimed by the NBA’s official website.