Pre season observations

[manjusaka]

As constructed we need to not play BBQ very much let others develop and get more talent in deep draft.
Trade our pacers 2026 back to them for a player they pick in 2025 and Jazz 2nd 2027.
If pacers won’t do that then trade pacer 2026 first and a future second get back in the 25 first round. I’m OK with BBQ and depth if GD is off bench. We need 2 new starters an OG lite and Starting C in the future as JP and KO don’t fit timeline.


There are trades for now but our FO has struggled last 3-4 with strategies. A great draft pick or 1 good trade just gets you to playin if you are not consistent.

BBQ need playing time together for their on development. I am still very high on RJB, think he is a consistent hesi-pull-up away from being elite scorer. We already have a starting C in Yak, and we got more weapons on POA defence this year.

[ciueli]

Agbaji was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; went to high school in Missouri; and college in Kansas.

Can you explain how what you mean by "unfounded because, you know, Masai and his Africa guys" comment? Or are you just a racist POS?

We picked up his option because of the sunk cost of the pick. Agbaji is the son of one of Masai's closest friends and considers Masai family. The acquisition was nepotism, and option was because it costs the team next to nothing to see more of him but would look very bad if they dropped him.

Y'all are actually insane if you think the acquisition was nepotism

Agbaji was a decent player for Utah who I honestly do not understand why they moved on from considering what they got in return. You guys are way to blinded by the 20 or so games he played when he was thrusted into a horrible situation to end last year.

He was billed as a 3+D wing player and it turns out he has neither the 3 nor the D. Outside of that, he has no shot creation, not a good passer or ball handler, and is a low efficiency scorer (52.7% career True Shooting). Maybe I could believe his shooting would improve if he was taking contested shots but the thing is he is just bricking wide open 3s a lot of the time, that's a massive red flag, he's only been on the team a short time and I'm already tired of watching it.

Older draftees need to show they have something right away, Ochai's first season was his year 22 season, he's actually older than RJ Barrett, so the amount of time he'll be given to show he's an NBA rotation player is going to be less than a guy who gets drafted at 19 or 20. Utah bailed on him because he wasn't good right away, they gave him 2 seasons and he only regressed, they will have a mountain of draft picks coming up so there's no reason for them to waste time on an older prospect that hasn't shown any promise to this point. They were smart to dump him, they knew he wasn't going to turn into anything special and wasn't going to be worth what he's getting paid the next two seasons as there are better players available making the minimum. There's no question family connections with Masai was one of the reasons we traded for him, I don't believe this trade would have happened if Masai was gone and Bobby was running the team.

[pingpongrac]

We picked up his option because of the sunk cost of the pick. Agbaji is the son of one of Masai's closest friends and considers Masai family. The acquisition was nepotism, and option was because it costs the team next to nothing to see more of him but would look very bad if they dropped him.

Y'all are actually insane if you think the acquisition was nepotism

Agbaji was a decent player for Utah who I honestly do not understand why they moved on from considering what they got in return. You guys are way to blinded by the 20 or so games he played when he was thrusted into a horrible situation to end last year.

He was billed as a 3+D wing player and it turns out he has neither the 3 nor the D. Outside of that, he has no shot creation, not a good passer or ball handler, and is a low efficiency scorer (52.7% career True Shooting). Maybe I could believe his shooting would improve if he was taking contested shots but the thing is he is just bricking wide open 3s a lot of the time, that's a massive red flag, he's only been on the team a short time and I'm already tired of watching it.

Older draftees need to show they have something right away, Ochai's first season was his year 22 season, he's actually older than RJ Barrett, so the amount of time he'll be given to show he's an NBA rotation player is going to be less than a guy who gets drafted at 19 or 20. Utah bailed on him because he wasn't good right away, they gave him 2 seasons and he only regressed, they will have a mountain of draft picks coming up so there's no reason for them to waste time on an older prospect that hasn't shown any promise to this point. They were smart to dump him, they knew he wasn't going to turn into anything special and wasn't going to be worth what he's getting paid the next two seasons as there are better players available making the minimum. There's no question family connections with Masai was one of the reasons we traded for him, I don't believe this trade would have happened if Masai was gone and Bobby was running the team.

In what world is Agbaji not a good defender? He doesn't rack up steals or blocks, but he utilizes his body and moves his feet well which forces tough shots; he held G/F to 41.5% from the field last season and 42.4% in his rookie season.

This preseason was the first time we got to see Agbaji in a proper role in Toronto (4th/5th option) and he was very productive despite only hitting 3 of 16 3FG as he put up 16/6/4 per36 on 59 TS% while leading the team in plus-minus too. Obviously it's a small sample size and just preseason basketball, but there were a lot of encouraging signs over the past few weeks. He does need to get his 3FG% up to the mid 30s, but that shouldn't be an issue if he generally sticks to the corners – and that's where he'll likely be planted when playing alongside Scottie, IQ, RJ/Gradey and Poeltl.

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

Y'all are actually insane if you think the acquisition was nepotism

Agbaji was a decent player for Utah who I honestly do not understand why they moved on from considering what they got in return. You guys are way to blinded by the 20 or so games he played when he was thrusted into a horrible situation to end last year.

He was billed as a 3+D wing player and it turns out he has neither the 3 nor the D. Outside of that, he has no shot creation, not a good passer or ball handler, and is a low efficiency scorer (52.7% career True Shooting). Maybe I could believe his shooting would improve if he was taking contested shots but the thing is he is just bricking wide open 3s a lot of the time, that's a massive red flag, he's only been on the team a short time and I'm already tired of watching it.

Older draftees need to show they have something right away, Ochai's first season was his year 22 season, he's actually older than RJ Barrett, so the amount of time he'll be given to show he's an NBA rotation player is going to be less than a guy who gets drafted at 19 or 20. Utah bailed on him because he wasn't good right away, they gave him 2 seasons and he only regressed, they will have a mountain of draft picks coming up so there's no reason for them to waste time on an older prospect that hasn't shown any promise to this point. They were smart to dump him, they knew he wasn't going to turn into anything special and wasn't going to be worth what he's getting paid the next two seasons as there are better players available making the minimum. There's no question family connections with Masai was one of the reasons we traded for him, I don't believe this trade would have happened if Masai was gone and Bobby was running the team.

In what world is Agbaji not a good defender? He doesn't rack up steals or blocks, but he utilizes his body and moves his feet well which forces tough shots; he held G/F to 41.5% from the field last season and 42.4% in his rookie season.

This preseason was the first time we got to see Agbaji in a proper role in Toronto (4th/5th option) and he was very productive despite only hitting 3 of 16 3FG as he put up 16/6/4 per36 on 59 TS% while leading the team in plus-minus too. Obviously it's a small sample size and just preseason basketball, but there were a lot of encouraging signs over the past few weeks. He does need to get his 3FG% up to the mid 30s, but that shouldn't be an issue if he generally sticks to the corners – and that's where he'll likely be planted when playing alongside Scottie, IQ, RJ/Gradey and Poeltl.

ochai is just a garbage scorer and even if he shoots mid 30's from downtown the rest of his scoring kit and overall game would make him highly replaceable

the way he bricks easy layups routinely i would never trust him in a meaningful game

his defense is way ahead of his offense and it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes a neutral wing defender in the NBA though

[YogurtProducer]

He was billed as a 3+D wing player and it turns out he has neither the 3 nor the D. Outside of that, he has no shot creation, not a good passer or ball handler, and is a low efficiency scorer (52.7% career True Shooting). Maybe I could believe his shooting would improve if he was taking contested shots but the thing is he is just bricking wide open 3s a lot of the time, that's a massive red flag, he's only been on the team a short time and I'm already tired of watching it.

Older draftees need to show they have something right away, Ochai's first season was his year 22 season, he's actually older than RJ Barrett, so the amount of time he'll be given to show he's an NBA rotation player is going to be less than a guy who gets drafted at 19 or 20. Utah bailed on him because he wasn't good right away, they gave him 2 seasons and he only regressed, they will have a mountain of draft picks coming up so there's no reason for them to waste time on an older prospect that hasn't shown any promise to this point. They were smart to dump him, they knew he wasn't going to turn into anything special and wasn't going to be worth what he's getting paid the next two seasons as there are better players available making the minimum. There's no question family connections with Masai was one of the reasons we traded for him, I don't believe this trade would have happened if Masai was gone and Bobby was running the team.

In what world is Agbaji not a good defender? He doesn't rack up steals or blocks, but he utilizes his body and moves his feet well which forces tough shots; he held G/F to 41.5% from the field last season and 42.4% in his rookie season.

This preseason was the first time we got to see Agbaji in a proper role in Toronto (4th/5th option) and he was very productive despite only hitting 3 of 16 3FG as he put up 16/6/4 per36 on 59 TS% while leading the team in plus-minus too. Obviously it's a small sample size and just preseason basketball, but there were a lot of encouraging signs over the past few weeks. He does need to get his 3FG% up to the mid 30s, but that shouldn't be an issue if he generally sticks to the corners – and that's where he'll likely be planted when playing alongside Scottie, IQ, RJ/Gradey and Poeltl.

ochai is just a garbage scorer and even if he shoots mid 30's from downtown the rest of his scoring kit and overall game would make him highly replaceable

the way he bricks easy layups routinely i would never trust him in a meaningful game

his defense is way ahead of his offense and it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes a neutral wing defender in the NBA though

Not every player on your roster needs to be a guy with an advanced scoring kit. You can point to any good team and there are guys who don't have any good scoring skills but stick to role player activities.

[YogurtProducer]

Y'all are actually insane if you think the acquisition was nepotism

Agbaji was a decent player for Utah who I honestly do not understand why they moved on from considering what they got in return. You guys are way to blinded by the 20 or so games he played when he was thrusted into a horrible situation to end last year.

He was billed as a 3+D wing player and it turns out he has neither the 3 nor the D. Outside of that, he has no shot creation, not a good passer or ball handler, and is a low efficiency scorer (52.7% career True Shooting). Maybe I could believe his shooting would improve if he was taking contested shots but the thing is he is just bricking wide open 3s a lot of the time, that's a massive red flag, he's only been on the team a short time and I'm already tired of watching it.

Older draftees need to show they have something right away, Ochai's first season was his year 22 season, he's actually older than RJ Barrett, so the amount of time he'll be given to show he's an NBA rotation player is going to be less than a guy who gets drafted at 19 or 20. Utah bailed on him because he wasn't good right away, they gave him 2 seasons and he only regressed, they will have a mountain of draft picks coming up so there's no reason for them to waste time on an older prospect that hasn't shown any promise to this point. They were smart to dump him, they knew he wasn't going to turn into anything special and wasn't going to be worth what he's getting paid the next two seasons as there are better players available making the minimum. There's no question family connections with Masai was one of the reasons we traded for him, I don't believe this trade would have happened if Masai was gone and Bobby was running the team.

In what world is Agbaji not a good defender? He doesn't rack up steals or blocks, but he utilizes his body and moves his feet well which forces tough shots; he held G/F to 41.5% from the field last season and 42.4% in his rookie season.

This preseason was the first time we got to see Agbaji in a proper role in Toronto (4th/5th option) and he was very productive despite only hitting 3 of 16 3FG as he put up 16/6/4 per36 on 59 TS% while leading the team in plus-minus too. Obviously it's a small sample size and just preseason basketball, but there were a lot of encouraging signs over the past few weeks. He does need to get his 3FG% up to the mid 30s, but that shouldn't be an issue if he generally sticks to the corners – and that's where he'll likely be planted when playing alongside Scottie, IQ, RJ/Gradey and Poeltl.

And despite his poor shooting to end last year, and this pre-season, there is still ample reason to have some hope/belief that Ochai will be a mid 30's 3 point shooter.

He shot 35.5% as a rookie, and 33.1% prior to be traded to us.
He has shot 35.6% in his summer league career.
He shot 37.3% in college (including 37.7% and 40.9% as a JR/SR)

What fans on here don't seem to realize is his shooting in Toronto is the outlier. he has been a decent to good shooter for the rest of his collegiate and NBA career.

Sure - maybe he has completely lost his 3 point shot. But that would be strange for a guy that has been a shooter for 4 years prior.

[Rapsalot]

As constructed we need to not play BBQ very much let others develop and get more talent in deep draft.
Trade our pacers 2026 back to them for a player they pick in 2025 and Jazz 2nd 2027.
If pacers won’t do that then trade pacer 2026 first and a future second get back in the 25 first round. I’m OK with BBQ and depth if GD is off bench. We need 2 new starters an OG lite and Starting C in the future as JP and KO don’t fit timeline.


There are trades for now but our FO has struggled last 3-4 with strategies. A great draft pick or 1 good trade just gets you to playin if you are not consistent.

BBQ need playing time together for their on development. I am still very high on RJB, think he is a consistent hesi-pull-up away from being elite scorer. We already have a starting C in Yak, and we got more weapons on POA defence this year.

Don’t get me wrong I love Jak but in 3-4 years when BBQ are ready to title contention Jak and KO will be older than we would like. Need someone to develop over that time. Ulrich might be it but I would like a second young C to grow.