April 4 was a pretty rough day for me. As a big fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels, I was elated they beat Duke in the Final Four, and at that moment they were leading Kansas by 15 points in the National Championship Game. Then the second half happened, and the Jayhawks came back from the largest deficit ever to win the National Championship. It was a rough night.
But, in that second half, and in the tournament overall, we all got to see all the talent and great shooting of Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji. Agbaji didn’t do it alone, as Remy Martin and Christian Braun also had big second half performances, but it was Agbaji throughout the whole season who had NBA scouts excited about him at the next level.
Yesterday, we dove into Jaden Hardy’s G-League season, and now for our Cleveland Cavaliers Draft Notebook, it’s time to take a look at Agbaji, who most scouts seemingly think will go higher than Hardy. Throughout the season, Agbaji averaged 18.8 points per game, while also grabbing over five rebounds a night, and dishing out nearly two assists. He was the 23rd-rated player in college basketball when it came to three-point percentage, knocking long balls down at over a 40% clip. His 47.5% field goal percentage shows that he has some good shot selection, but also can improve upon his mid-range game.
Personally, I think Hardy and Agbaji are very different players. Hardy has great ball-control and is constantly looking for his shot. Agbaji is more of a player who runs off screens, and might prefer to spot up, rather than create his own shot. However, Agbaji is very capable of creating his own shot, he just didn’t have the need to often in Kansas’ offense. There’s no doubt about it though, Agbaji can definitely help the Cavaliers now, and in the future.
So let’s take a look at Agbaji’s scouting report.