Official Ochai Agbaji Thread - Welcome to Toronto, Ochai!

[LoveMyRaps]

Seems like the Raptors organization have miscalculated on prospects lately. Only good pick recently has been Scottie Barnes while the rest were all busts.

Please do tell us who these busts are.

[Scase]

My theory is because they keep targeting these scrubs that can’t score and then calling them “two way players”.

Or the ever present "I can fix him" mentality.

but how long are their arms?

Too long to be able to shoot apparently.

[gp2015]

The best move is to decline his player option for next season and free up $6.5 million.

Time to cut bait.

I can't think of any time when I watched him recently and thought that he has the potential to be a good player some day.

[PD28]

Or the ever present "I can fix him" mentality.

but how long are their arms?

Too long to be able to shoot apparently.

If only our reporters had the balls to ask what this FO thinks two-way player means. Can't shoot, dribble or create does not mean two-way lmfao

[Indeed]

Seems like the Raptors organization have miscalculated on prospects lately. Only good pick recently has been Scottie Barnes while the rest were all busts.

Wtf are you talking about?

Banton just got his option picked up. Very late pick.

Koloko was tracking just fine until his healthy issue.

Gradey is a bust?

You are saying all 4 picks just 3 weeks ago are busts based on 4 games?

Only DJ has been abust so far.

Flynn

[Los_29]

Bobby bid against himself and got fleeced by Utah. Agbaji will literally be out of the NBA after this contract. Another case of the Raptors torching assets (draft picks).

That 29th pick is a premium asset.

[Los_29]

Then you’re just competing with teams for KO. KO by himself is worth more than the 29th pick.

But yeah it’s an insignificant trade. Very safe trade for the team. Ochai is not looking good but like you said, if his shot comes back then he’s a serviceable player.

Competing with teams isn't necessarily a bad thing. Good teams that need vets don't have much cap to give, and bad teams don't want to put money on vets. In hindsight, we know the market on bench players plummeted. We might have gotten Kelly for even cheaper (and probably would have). We might not have gotten Kelly at all, but then what is the big loss there? The team looks to be pretty bad, says they're fine with being pretty bad, and Kelly is 33 years old.

Not to mention JV just went to the wiz for 10/yr and had zero suitors, JV is inarguably a better player, who is marginally worse from 3, and can actually play centre as opposed to a PF playing the role of a stretch 5.

This is ultimately not a trade that I'll lose sleep over, but it's just another case of a wasted asset, and bidding against themselves for no reason.

JV is terrible center to have on a developing team. Olynyk is a good one to have especially with the pieces we have.

I’m sure there was a ton of demand for the 29th overall pick in a draft that was widely regarded as being awful.

[Los_29]

Seems like the Raptors organization have miscalculated on prospects lately. Only good pick recently has been Scottie Barnes while the rest were all busts.

Wtf are you talking about?

Banton just got his option picked up. Very late pick.

Koloko was tracking just fine until his healthy issue.

Gradey is a bust?

You are saying all 4 picks just 3 weeks ago are busts based on 4 games?

Only DJ has been abust so far.

Flynn

Wasn’t Flynn like the 30th overall pick? lol

But yeah, our draft record is quite impressive when the forum is criticizing our 2nd round picks.

[Chandan]

"Two way" just means the player is limited, but have the potential to do two things just well enough. If they are actually talented on both ends of the court they would say they are a complete player.

[Rapsalot]

Not apologizing for Ochai as I think he has lost confidence and not sure how to get that back?
I do think we are trying to play him a lot at PF and he is just too short for D assignments. We need to move Bruce B for some Forward to C depth so Ochai can fit in with the RJ, Gradey, JaKobe and Ochai should be our main 4 SG/SF with maybe a bigger SF to plays there too sometimes.
End of the day this guy will get some chances first half of season to add Def off bench and shoot some counter to up the side 3s if he is an 0 for player too many nights he will be out of league.

[ash_k]

Not apologizing for Ochai as I think he has lost confidence and not sure how to get that back?
I do think we are trying to play him a lot at PF and he is just too short for D assignments. We need to move Bruce B for some Forward to C depth so Ochai can fit in with the RJ, Gradey, JaKobe and Ochai should be our main 4 SG/SF with maybe a bigger SF to plays there too sometimes.
End of the day this guy will get some chances first half of season to add Def off bench and shoot some counter to up the side 3s if he is an 0 for player too many nights he will be out of league.

He has not looked right from the moment he joined us.
5 months under coach Darko and nothing but regression at this point.
At some point, we will need to see some evidence about players development. We need Ochai to develop and gain his confidence back, there is a very good player in there.

[Raptaurus]

I realize a late first isn’t a lot to give up but this trade was just as bad as giving up a previous first in that Thad trade. KO was a free agent and could probably have been had for much cheaper in a free agent market that has become unforgiving for role players. And Ainge cut bait on Agbaji for a reason as we are clearly seeing.

Compound that with losing our own lottery selection this year, and all the firsts being shipped off for veterans start adding up for a team that has been circling the drain.

[OAKLEY_2]

Competing with teams isn't necessarily a bad thing. Good teams that need vets don't have much cap to give, and bad teams don't want to put money on vets. In hindsight, we know the market on bench players plummeted. We might have gotten Kelly for even cheaper (and probably would have). We might not have gotten Kelly at all, but then what is the big loss there? The team looks to be pretty bad, says they're fine with being pretty bad, and Kelly is 33 years old.

Not to mention JV just went to the wiz for 10/yr and had zero suitors, JV is inarguably a better player, who is marginally worse from 3, and can actually play centre as opposed to a PF playing the role of a stretch 5.

This is ultimately not a trade that I'll lose sleep over, but it's just another case of a wasted asset, and bidding against themselves for no reason.

JV is terrible center to have on a developing team. Olynyk is a good one to have especially with the pieces we have.

I’m sure there was a ton of demand for the 29th overall pick in a draft that was widely regarded as being awful.

Now that we have Walter-Dick, Agbaji looks like a borrowed time throw-in on the get KO trade. He is barely bubble rotation. Poetl will be kept because he is the only thing that will inspire hope for the future. He will help us compete or appear to compete. Being a ground zero train wreck without hope puts us in Detroit or Wizards company and M+B will have incompetent Rogers calling for their managerial pink slips and a boardroom Shake Shimmy and Shatkins solution and ultimately renovations as distraction.

[dTox]

He sucks

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[TimeForChange]

He sucks

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i was excited over him after the trade, but I agree, he does suck

[ash_k]

He sucks

You would not think it is the same player that showed all the shots in Basketball leading his team to that title

Watch on YouTube

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

Seems like the Raptors organization have miscalculated on prospects lately. Only good pick recently has been Scottie Barnes while the rest were all busts.

Please do tell us who these busts are.

You say "us" as if you represent most others on here, you don't.

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

He sucks

You would not think it is the same player that showed all the shots in Basketball leading his team to that title

Watch on YouTube

there were a lot of problems in his draft profile namely being a 22 year old wing who shot 71% from the stripe in college and barely improved throughout his 4 year career while just being mid or below average at almost everything.

he had an explosive tournament run and tested incredibly well athletically but the feel and skill for the game to succeed at the nba level was never there

[KrazyP]

Agbaji has been very underwhelming in his Raptors tenure so far but I’m not sure what fans were expecting. He’s been with the Raps less than half a season! As a reclaimation type project it’s gonna take more time than that to see if he can develop into something under the Raps guidance.

His chances of flaming out of the league are pretty high but so too are the chances of the average #29 pick busting. It’s a fair trade off.

[ash_k]

He sucks

You would not think it is the same player that showed all the shots in Basketball leading his team to that title

Watch on YouTube

there were a lot of problems in his draft profile namely being a 22 year old wing who shot 71% from the stripe in college and barely improved throughout his 4 year career while just being mid or below average at almost everything.

he had an explosive tournament run and tested incredibly well athletically but the feel and skill for the game to succeed at the nba level was never there

The problem right now that he has looked at his absolute worst with us. That is just not the player he is.
He has all the tools to be a very effective NBA player, he was not a lotto-pick for no reason.
This is where Darko has to show up.

I could not see anything positive having him out there in the Summer league, as a 3rd year player.