3 lineups Cavs can deploy with new draft pick Ochai Agbaji: The Switch Attack
The Cavaliers have a bifurcated roster, with a large number of guards and a large number of bigs, and the only true small forwards on the roster are unlikely to be in the Day 1 rotation. That makes it nearly impossible to run a large-scale switching scheme, which almost always requires a strong foundation of bigs wings and forwards. There is one lineup that could be deployed to try that out.
PG: Ricky Rubio; SG: Isaac Okoro; SF: Ochai Agbaji; PF: Lamar Stevens; C: Evan Mobley
Once Ricky Rubio returns, this group is very tough defensively and incredibly versatile. Rubio was a part of some of the Cavs’ best defensive groups last season before his injury, and Isaac Okoro is the team’s best backcourt defender. Lamar Stevens is an absolute tank against bigger players but nimble enough to defend smaller, faster players. Evan Mobley is already one of the league’s best big-man perimeter defenders.
Put that all together and then add Ochai Agbaji, who is 6’5″ with a wingspan over 6’10”. That group could switch nearly any action; they wouldn’t be the absolutely largest group and would struggle against size, but the ability to switch anything and then swarm behind the ball would generate a large number of turnovers.
Agbaji would also get the chance to grow as a switch-defender by getting those reps early, especially if the Cavs are able to lean into that defensive scheme down the line as the roster evolves. It’s not the best switching lineup the league has ever seen, but it could be a really good one. The offensive potency and spacing of this lineup is a lot more questionable, but it would be a lot of fun on defense.