It’s not difficult to envision Ochai Agbaji’s outlook with Cavs

When the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Ochai Agbaji in late June, it was hardly a shocker. The team had been linked to the Kansas product throughout the pre-draft process, and he was one of the more common prospects mocked to the Cavaliers.

A four-year collegiate player for the Jayhawks, Agbaji gradually got better as a perimeter shooter, and in his junior and senior seasons, put it together from deep. Then, he hit 37.7 percent and then 40.0 percent of his three-point attempts, and had 14.1 and 18.8 points per outing.

Agbaji is going to have to adjust to the NBA three-point line being deeper than in college, but he displayed that he could knock down deeper catch-and-shoot triples in the last two seasons, which is encouraging.

With the Cavaliers, he could give them quite a lift if he receives regular opportunities in years ahead, and if he can make his imprint on games if chances come, he could definitely be a rotational regular.

Time will tell as to how things shake out, feasibly, and there’s obviously others involved. So it’s going to take some chunk of contests before we’ll see if Agbaji can get meaningful chances this coming season.

That said, the role for him does seem pretty clear with Cleveland, frankly.

It’s not difficult to envision what Agbaji’s role could be for the Cavs, if the opportunities do come.

It’s going to take some trial and error and fine-tuning regarding what lineups we could see Agbaji flourish, feasibly in stretches at the 2 and 3. How long it takes for Agbaji to be a rotational factor is tough to say for certain, and he was the 14th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, to that point.

I’m not going to suggest definitively if he’ll be a regular rotation contributor in his first season, even. However, as we touched on, if the catch-and-shoot play does look to be there, and if Agbaji can be an impactful off-ball guy/floor spacer when the playing time does come, he could potentially be one of Cleveland’s notable bench players, fairly early on it’d seem.

Agbaji gradually got better as a shooter in his time at KU, and for a Cavs team that could greatly use three-point shooting depth in general, Agbaji could have a clear-cut case for minutes, one would imagine.

He’s not a player that I’d think will provide shot creation much this coming season, or realistically in the next few years, but if he can be a knockdown off-ball guy, and make plays off of movement, mixed with cuts, it may not matter much.

Agbaji placed in the 94th percentile in catch-and-shoot plays in the halfcourt as a senior with the Jayhawks, per Synergy Sports. With his great shooting motion and such a quick release, he could definitely be a key perimeter shooting presence.

Agbaji could make a difference for Cavaliers in the corners/on the wing, in the transition game as a shooter that can knock down looks in secondary break scenarios, and as we alluded to, he could be an added movement shooter to the mix.

Now, it’s hard to forecast if he’ll be much of a shot creator in coming years, as through four collegiate seasons, there wasn’t much evidence to suggest that will be there in NBA play. We’ll have to see if that can be a counter for him, but Agbaji’s cutting ability and athleticism vertically could bode well for him in rotational play.

And while Cleveland will have to decide which guys to play him often with in stretches at the 2/3, defensively he is heady player there, contests shot pretty well and his 6-foot-10 wingspan he does utilize in a functional manner.

So, to me at least, moving forward, if the chances do come, it’s not difficult to envision the outlook for Agbaji with the Cavs.

If he can establish a rhythm, he could be one of the Cavaliers’ top off-ball shooters that could provide energy often, and they’d have to find ways to get him his share of minutes, somehow, some way. Even with others involved, that’d be hard not to in that sense, provided he’s ultra-confident when his number is called.

If a role expansion were to happen later on or in his second season, I wouldn’t be all that surprised, looking onward.