I’ve noticed that Ochai Agbaji is not a popular candidate on this board

I’m a big fan of his. Winner as well. High floor guy we can fill our roster out with.

One huge reason I suspect is due to the board fixated with the 8th pick and that second tier of prospects.

Ochai is who I want if we move back though

Trading back would be pretty good in this draft. At 12 we can most likely get one of Agbaji or Davis.

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not a popular candidate on this board

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First, I think most of us don't follow college that closely. There are a handful that clearly do, but this board is far from experts on the draft. The impression I get from Agbaji is he'd be a good fit but his ceiling isn't as high as others in this range. That's probably why there isn't a ton of excitement. That and we drafted Trey so the need to add a wing shooter isn't as severe as it was last year.

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Perfect CJ Mcollum replacement in a few years.

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I don't think he projects to have the ballhandling/playmaking for this role. He's more of a movement shooter and straight-line driver, right? That's not CJ.

Would much prefer Davis or Mathurin over Agbaji.

How, Agbaji over Griffin? Yes.

Trey is great but you can never have enough shooter, especially competent basketball players that can shoot the lights out and be a threat in other areas as well

I like Agbaji, he’s the upperclassman we see every year that’s going to be better than where he’s selected.

Though I think Jordan Poole upside and CJ replacement is a bit much. He’s not a creator, he’s a guy that will need just about all of his offense created for him.

I like him a little more than Duarte last year.

He reminds me more of another Kansas product from years ago Ben McLemore. Hyper athletic and can hit an open three. I don’t see him being able to do much at all with the ball in his hands. That’s not good enough on the wing at 6’4.

And one thing that contradicts itself is the board all agrees our window is the next 3-5 years, why would you not want someone who can come in and contribute pretty soon compared to developmental guys that may not pan out.

I know a minutes crunch, but having another reliable player is not a problem in my mind

I’ve watched probably 75% of Ochai’s games over his college career. I don’t see him having a Jordan Poole kind of career. I just don’t see him having that kind of offensive upside. He should be a better defender, though. I don’t know if Poole is really a great comparison for him honestly.

I think Ochai will have a long NBA career as a 3 and D guard. I think you can expect him to be a low-end starter or high-end bench guy who you can finish games with if you need his shooting and defense. With his age and shooting, he should work his way into an NBA rotation quicker than younger guys with shakier shots. I think he will work best as an off-ball, lower-usage guy alongside more potent on-ball teammates. However, if Ochai has the ball at the end of the shot clock, he can put in on the floor and make something happen if need be. But if he is your primary creator, you probably have some issues.

He will be a solid, valuable player in my opinion. I would feel disappointed if we took him at 8 because I think you need to aim higher at that draft position. However, if we moved down to the middle of the first round, I think he would be a value pick in that range.

Another thing I will add is that his play dipped a little toward the end of the year after he got COVID in February. If you only watched him at the end of the year, you probably didn’t see him at his best. He played phenomenal prior to that and looked like a legit POY candidate.

Also, he seems like a high-character kid. He is a competitor who won a title. I think he would fit like a glove in our locker room.

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And one thing that contradicts itself is the board all agrees our window is the next 3-5 years, why would you not want someone who can come in and contribute pretty soon compared to developmental guys that may not pan out.

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I’ve addressed this before. If we believe that we are going to be consistently making the playoffs for the next few years, then this is going to be our highest pick for a while. You can find bench contributors and rotation guys throughout the draft and in FA. It’s much harder to get high-end starters/finishing 5 players. The guy we take in this draft either needs to have the potential to be a finishing 5 player to replace someone who might leave in a few years when the roster gets expensive or be valuable enough to be a trade piece that helps us get that last guy that pushes us over the top. It’s why a lot of us were banging the drum for Sharpe so much because he could be that guy.

I don’t view Agbaji as that guy. I don’t think in 3 years from now we are going to be saying “man if we could have just upgraded our 8th best player with Agbaji we could have gone far.” So if he’s not that guy, then why not take a swing with someone like Daniels or Sochan who maybe could be?