3 lineups Cavs can deploy with new draft pick Ochai Agbaji: The Kansas Starters
Last season the Cleveland Cavaliers had four starters locked into place, with the fifth-starter rotating at the 2 throughout the year. They will likely use a similar lineup, and Ochai Agbaji will get a chance to play some minutes with that group. More interesting is the idea of taking the team’s three stars and adding the two Cavs players who played college basketball in Kansas: Agbaji out of Kansas, and Dean Wade from Kansas State.
PG: Darius Garland; SG: Ochai Agbaji; SF: Dean Wade; PF: Evan Mobley; C: Jarrett Allen
This lineup is possibly the best one the Cavs can use on the roster, depending on how quickly Agbaji is ready for primetime. It boasts shooting from all three perimeter positions, plus Mobley’s burgeoning shot, a combination that will leave space for Darius Garland to run pick-and-rolls and get into the paint.
It’s also stout on defense, though, which is what makes this group potentially lethal. Agbaji was a really good defender in college, and he is the team’s best two-way option at the two to start the season even as a rookie. Dean Wade deserves a major rotation role this season as a very strong forward defender, and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are right there with the Boston Celtics’ duo as the best defensive 4-5 pairing in the league.
J.B. Bickerstaff is most likely going to start Lauri Markkanen again to start the season, and the trio of Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert and potentially Collin Sexton are all above Agbaji in the 2-guard pecking order. Even so, however many minutes the Cavs can find for this fivesome will almost certainly pay dividends.