What stands out from Cavs’ draft selection of Ochai Agbaji at #14

On Thursday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers were slated to have four selections in the 2022 NBA Draft. Earlier on Thursday, the Cavaliers reportedly made a deal which involved the team trading the draft rights to 2017 draft pick Sasha Vezenkov, and $1.75 million in cash considerations to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for the #49 pick.

It did seem fairly likely that the Cavaliers would at some point make a corresponding trade during the draft, as an aside. Acquiring that other asset made it feasible for Cleveland to possibly look to package those three second-rounders, for example, to move back into the first round, for instance.

But the Wine and Gold ended up making those selections, and two of the three second-rounders in Khalifa Diop (of Gran Canaria in Spain’s Liga ACB) and Luke Travers (of the Perth Wildcats of Australia’s NBL) will continue to play overseas. The player will seemingly be with Cleveland early on of those guys is Isaiah Mobley of USC (pick #49), who is Evan Mobley’s brother as well.

Circling back to the original first-rounder at #14, however, in what was not surprising, per se, Cleveland went with wing Ochai Agbaji, who figures to get minutes at the 2 and some at the 3, I’d think, with the team. Agbaji was a prospect who was commonly linked to the Cavs throughout the draft process, as a catch-and-shoot player.

So what’s the theme here?

The Cavs went with Agbaji at #14 here likely for catch-and-shoot play, and him looking to have a defined rotational role. The pick on the surface is somewhat underwhelming, though.

With the Agbaji pick at #14, I understood what Koby Altman, Mike Gansey and company were going for. Agbaji was a player that was a four-year starter at Kansas, and he showed gradual improvement as a shooter over his time there, particularly in the catch-and-shoot realm.

In his senior year, Agbaji connected on 40.7 percent from three-point range on 6.5 attempts per contest, and hit 37.7 percent from three as a junior on 6.9 attempts per outing.

He again was a four-year starter, and in the last two seasons had 14.1 and 18.8 points per game, and this last season, was the Big-12 Player of the Year and was the 2022 NCAA Tournament Most Valuable Player. Agbaji led KU to the national title alongside Christian Braun and others.

Needless to say, the Kansas product will be coming in as an older rookie, and should be able to contribute, at least to some degree, pretty early on, if minutes are there. Other guys such as Collin Sexton, in the event he’s back, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro will be involved, though. So we’ll have to see how things shake out, and Agbaji could play some with one of those guys and Darius Garland, matchup-depending.

Also, while Agbaji is not exactly a big wing-type player, such as Tari Eason would’ve been, Agbaji could be a solid defender on the perimeter for Cleveland, and on the plus side, he does have a 6-foot-10 wingspan, as our Will Holtz pointed out. That should help him in stretches against opposing guards, and he should be able to be competent against some opposing 3s.

Agbaji is a heady team defender, too, and Agbaji can help some as a weak side rotator near the rim with his timing and athleticism, as Holtz noted. Ochai is a decent defensive rebounder for a perimeter guy (4.4 per outing at Kansas), also.

So, to recap a bit, the gist here was that the Cavaliers seemingly found Agbaji to be a capable catch-and-shoot guy, and they valued his off-ball and cutting movement. I give him his due for that, too, and that sort of thing can help the team in both set offense and in transition in games.

Defensively, he should be decent, and is a smart player. Those are pluses as well.

The main issue that I had with his pick is Agbaji is not much of a shot creation presence, and lifetime, he had only a 9.4 percent assist rate in four seasons. That’s less than ideal, putting it nicely, for a four-year college player, and perimeter player.

Maybe in time, we’ll see him hone in more on off-the-bounce progression, which he showed some of last season, albeit not as much as one would like.

And lastly, while there’d be more of a learning curve, there were guys such as A.J. Griffin, Tari Eason, TyTy Washington Jr. and to some degree, Malaki Branham on the board still. I like get the Eason shooting concerns, but he has elite defensive abilities, and could have more untapped offensive potential, and while Griffin’s injury concerns are absolutely there, he could be a nuclear-level shooter and could be a big-time shot creator in time.

Regardless, for Cleveland, they got a player that should be able to contribute early, you would think.

We’ll see how things shake out, however.