When the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Ochai Agbaji with the 14th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, it was with the hope that he'd become one of the leagues' premier 3-and-D wings on a team that desperately needed reinforcements at that spot.
Fast forward three and a half years and that optimism has completely faded.
Thanks to the blockbuster trade for Donovan Mitchell in the late summer of 2022, Agbaji never even suited up for Cleveland and has now found himself on the fourth team of his young career. Following the trade deadline, the Toronto Raptors traded Agbaji to the Brooklyn Nets along with a second round pick for essentially nothing in return. The sole hope was just to get off his contract.
Ochai Agbaji once looked like an NBA-ready wing in college
For a lottery pick, Agbaji is a bit of a unique case in terms of his route to getting to the NBA. He played all four years of his college career at Kansas and while NIL and the transfer portal hadn't fully taken off yet, they still existed and along with the COVID-19 pandemic, it certainly is something to note.
In 2018-19, Agbaji's first season at Kansas, he started 16 games and played 25.9 minutes per night while averaging 8.5 points. Not bad at all for a freshman on a blue blood. Then, his sophomore year, he took a jump for the number one team in the country before the postseason was canceled due to the pandemic, starting all 31 games on 10.0 points per game.
As a junior in 2020-21 was when Agbaji really started to look like a future NBA player. His scoring numbers jumped to 14.7 points per game while shooting 37.7 percent from three.
After deciding to return to the Jayhawks for his senior season, Agbaji dominated in his final year. He led the Big-12 in scoring at 18.8 points per game on 40.7 percent from distance to go along with 5.1 rebounds. Not to mention that he was the leading scorer on the national championship-winning team and a first team All-American.
The pitch to draft Agbaji was somewhat simple. He stood in at 6'5'' and 200 pounds, a bit skinny but very desirable size for an NBA wing. He was a solid defender who didn't turn the ball over much and most importantly, he had taken tangible leaps as a shooter in every season of college. His 3-point percentage increased by at least three percent each year.
However, clearly, his flaws should have been taken more into account. Agbaji was older, 22 years at the time of the 2022 draft, and never showed much self-creation or playmaking ability. The assumption was that when he got to the league, those flaws wouldn't be much of an issue due to his role as a 3-and-D guy.
From the moment that Agbaji got to the league, he struggled.
He wasn't terrible in his rookie season for the Utah Jazz, starting in 22 games with 20.5 minutes per game, putting up 7.9 points on 35.5 percent from deep. His second year, 2023-24, Agbaji hit the skids. In his first 51 games in Utah, his averages dropped to 5.4 points per game while shooting 33.1 percent from 3.
He clearly did not show enough in his season and a half playing for the Jazz, and was subsequently traded to Toronto at the 2024 trade deadline. However, the change of scenery did not help Agbaji. He started in 18 of 27 games to close the season, but shot an abysmal 21.7 percent from 3.
Last season, Agbaji found his largest role to date and truthfully, had his best season yet.
He started in 45 games with his minutes jumping to 27.2 per night. Not only did his scoring go up as well (10.4 points), but his percentages too. Agbaji shot 49.8 percent from the field and a career-best 39.9 percent from 3. He also averaged career highs in rebounds, assists, and steals.
While 2024-25 looked like a real turning point in Agbaji's career, 2025-26 has sunk his value. His minutes have dropped to just 15.5 per game and his percentage from long range has dropped to an almost unplayable 18.5.
So, as a likely playoff team with large contracts to key players (Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poetl), the Raptors, in an attempt to get under the first apron, decided it best to get Agbaji off of the books. Even as a restricted free agent this summer, he just was no longer worth a roster spot on a playoff team. It even took attaching a second round pick for nothing in return to make it happen.
Now, Agbaji will essentially have a 30 game tryout with the tanking Nets, the cheapest team in the league. Luckily, the Nets are a tad thin on wing depth, and the position has proven to be a bit of a revolving door thus far, so Agbaji should get an opportunity
Michael Porter Jr. is the key piece right now, although many were surprised that Brooklyn did not trade him at the deadline. Egor Demin, the wing-converted rookie also plays the majority of those minutes as well. That's about it, though, in terms of established wing players currently on the roster.
Noah Clowney is more of a power forward, and names such as Terance Mann, Ziaire Williams and Drake Powell have not wowed anyone thus far. Not to mention that Brooklyn waved Cam Thomas, so Agbaji will get a chance with free agency impending.
Agbaji would have been in a better environment had he stayed in Cleveland
Let's play the hypothetical game for a bit. Let's pretend the Mitchell trade just never happened, and Agbaji remained in Cleveland, at least for his rookie year.
While they wouldn't have been nearly as good, the Cavaliers still would probably have snuck into the playoffs somewhere at the very least. Looking at their rotation in the 2022-23 playoffs, their starting lineup would likely have consisted of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markannen, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
Then, off the bench you'd get some combination of Caris LeVert, Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, Danny Green and Agbaji. That's a lot of wings.
It's hard to imagine that Agbaji would have gotten more than about 10 minutes a game or so, but there's value in being in a winning environment and Cleveland was unquestionably better than Utah that season. With Mitchell and Markkanen staying a constant either way, it's a safer bet to take the core of Garland, Mobley and Allen over that of Walker Kessler and who knows who else.
Also, this is a conversation for another day but who knows if Markkanen's immense leap he took in 2022-23 would happen in any form if he stayed in Cleveland. How that relates to Agbaji is that the better the Cavaliers were, the more stable the environment for him to grow is.
The flip side of that coin is that the better the team the less the opportunity. Even so, it really can't have gone much worse thus far in Agbaji's career.
Either way, the former Cavalier hasn't had the career many had hoped he would and now with free agency looming, Agbaji faces a crucial three months ahead.