Summer League will be nice way for Cavs’ Ochai Agbaji to get his shots up

On Friday at 5 PM Eastern, the Cleveland Cavaliers have their first game in the Las Vegas Summer League, after which there’s currently three scheduled games following that from there for now. Cleveland takes on the San Antonio Spurs Summer League squad first and secondly, the Denver Nuggets one on Sunday at 7 PM Eastern. Then, they’ll face the Charlotte Hornets Vegas Summer club on Wednesday at 5 PM Eastern and the Detroit Pistons Vegas squad on Thursday at 5:30 PM Eastern.

Some notable guys to pay close attention to are Cavs first-round draft selection, Ochai Agbaji, Cleveland second-round selections in Isaiah Mobley (now on a two-way deal) and Luke Travers, who will be a draft-and-stash guy. Players such as two-way guy RJ Nembhard Jr., and Josh Hall, who was previously a highly-touted recruit, could be in that realm, too.

It is Summer League, so one always has to take things with a grain of salt when watching these sort of games in that setting, but for young players and some other possible developmental players, it’s still in-game action.

One storyline, in particular, that fans will want to see is clearly how Agbaji looks as a shooter in these games. It’s again Summer League; having said that, Agbaji could be a knockdown player for Cleveland, and these games, at least in a few of them, are a solid way to get his feet wet in-game, if you will.

Vegas Summer League will be a nice way for the Cavs’ Agbaji to get his share of shots up.

When the Cavs drafted Agbaji at #14 about two weeks back, one of the immediate takeaways was how he should project as a notable catch-and-shoot guy pretty early on.

Agbaji steadily improved as a perimeter shooter over the course of his four-year collegiate career at Kansas, and connected on 40.7 percent from three as a senior on 6.5 attempts per outing. As a junior with the Jayhawks, he hit 37.7 percent from three on 6.9 attempts per game.

Agbaji has a high and really quick release, and showed in recent seasons that he can hit deeper college threes, so his catch-and-shoot play should translate to the next level, hopefully.

He’s a player that is a great off-ball mover and he demonstrated impressive relocation feel as a shooter at KU in the past two seasons, too, which assuredly the Cavaliers are high on. Diddo for his cutting ability and finishing off-ball over the top at times, both of which could help him immensely next season as well.

Generally speaking, however, when it comes to next season and in upcoming Vegas Summer League action, the perimeter shooting role is the key with Agbaji. In Vegas, the Cavaliers are reportedly wanting to give Agbaji some playmaking opportunities, and I understand the rationale there.

But, from my perspective, it’s more important for the Cavs to generate off-ball shooting looks for the rookie out of KU, and these Summer League games are a nice way to get him a boost from in-game play before we get deeper into the offseason.

To reiterate, they’re only Summer League games, and we’ll see if Agbaji plays in all of them. Still, reps are reps for rookies and young players, and hopefully, Ochai can get his share of looks to let it fly, and carry something forward.

And these games should be valuable for others to work on their games, such as Mobley, Travers and Hall.