Former Cavaliers wing has resurrected his career this season

On Sunday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the Toronto Raptors. It was a hard-fought game throughout before the Cavaliers pulled away late to win 122-108 and move to 17-1 on the season.

The matchup featured a homecoming of sorts for one former Cavaliers player -- albeit one who never actually played for the team in Cleveland. In the 2022 NBA Draft the Cavs drafted Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji, who played in Summer League before he was traded as a part of the package for Donovan Mitchell.

The Cavaliers drafted Agbaji, coming off of a National Championship at Kansas, because of his potential to be the 3-and-D wing they needed at small forward. In the two years following that trade, it looked like they dodged a bullet including him in the deal.

Agbaji couldn't get his legs under him with the Utah Jazz, nor last season once he was essentially dumped on the Toronto Raptors in the Kelly Olynyk deal. In 137 games, including a surprising 50 starts, he managed just 6.7 points per game, with 2.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists and less than one combined steal and block per game.

The real lodestone for Agbaji was his shooting. He managed to hit only 32.6 percent of his 3-pointers across two seasons, and took just 3.2 per game; hardly the accurate gunner he was supposed to be.

It was such a poor start for Agbaji that it was an open question whether the Toronto Raptors would even pick up his fourth-year option. Perhaps sensing that pressure, Agbaji played in Summer League as a rising third-year player, essentially unheard of for a lottery pick. He was terrible in Las Vegas as well, only increasing the pressure.

Ochai Agbaji has resurrected his career

How did Agbaji respond? He leaned into his best NBA skill, his strength and savvy on defense, and dialed the intensity up to an '11' in training camp with the Toronto Raptors. He impressed his coaching staff and earned minutes, then translated those minutes into success by continuing to play hard, rebound, and race down the floor in transition.

His excellent play in the preseason was going to be parlayed into a rotation spot, but when both Bruce Brown and RJ Barrett went down to injuries, suddenly Agbaji found his way into the starting lineup. He never looked back, starting 15 of 17 games this season and transforming into not just an NBA player, but one worthy of starting and playing big minutes.

In a whopping 31.8 minutes per game this season, the former Kansas wing is averaging 12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. He is shooting 44.1 percent from deep on a robust four attempts per game, and his 59.1 percent from 2-point range is also a career-high. Despite playing on an injury-riddled and inconsistent Raptors roster, he has a positive Box Plus-Minus.

In the game against the Cavaliers, Agbaji shot a tidy 4-for-6 from the field and scored nine points in 27 minutes. What's more, he played tough defense all night long, hustling around the court even if the Cavaliers merely shot the lights out despite his effort.

The Raptors will need to decide whether or not to start him when Immanuel Quickley returns, but either way he has proven himself a rotation player the rest of the season and sets him up to sign a contract extension next summer.

If and when the Raptors gel together, get healthy and start advancing into the playoff bracket in the years to come, Agbaji's size, strength and two-way ability make him an ideal fit to slot in beside their on-ball stars. It's very likely the Cavaliers will continue to see him every time they play Toronto.

The Cavaliers are certainly not sorry that they traded for Lauri Markkanen, but Agbaji's ascendance shows just how much they gave up in that deal, perhaps a clear win-win for all parties involved.