KU’s Agbaji, who emerged as Jazz starter in rookie season, on NBA summer-league roster
Former University of Kansas standout and Kansas City native Ochai Agbaji will soon get a chance to continue to showcase the improvement he displayed over the last three months of his rookie season with the NBA’s Utah Jazz.
Agbaji, the No. 14 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, was traded from Cleveland to Utah. He went from being a G League player to a regular part of the Jazz’s 2022-23 rotation starting on Jan. 5.
He’ll join Utah’s 2023 first-round draft picks — Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George and Brice Sensabaugh — and others on the Jazz summer-league team, which will participate in the three-game Salt Lake City Summer League July 3-6 at Delta Center.
The Jazz will meet Oklahoma City on July 3, Philadelphia on July 5 and Memphis on July 6. The Jazz also will compete in the NBA Summer League July 7-17 in Las Vegas. The team will be coached by current Jazz assistant Evan Bradds.
Agbaji, a 6-5, 215-pound guard out of KU and Kansas City’s Oak Park High School, opened the 2022-23 season averaging 13.2 points in nine games for the G league’s Salt Lake City Stars. After the 2022 Big 12 player of the year and consensus first-team All-American became a rotation player on Jan. 5, he averaged 9.9 points per game while shooting 36.7% from beyond the three-point line.
He scored 20 or more points in four of the team’s last 12 games and started 22 of the squad’s final 26 games.
“I think we all saw him take on a different role,” Jazz coach Will Hardy told the Deseret News. “We want to try to build on that in this offseason so that hopefully he comes into next training camp with a different level of confidence.”
For the season Agbaji wound up averaging 7.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He hit 42.7% of his shots, including 35.5% of his threes. He played in 59 games, starting 22.
Deseret News writer Sarah Todd, who gave Agbaji an A-grade for the season, wrote: “By the end of the 2022-23 campaign, Agbaji was not the same player he had been at the beginning of the season. He even got thrown out of a game. Though usually mild-mannered, always smiling and a self-proclaimed mama’s boy, he was ejected from the final game of the season after yelling at an official after a no-call play.”
Of the ejection in the fourth quarter of a season-ending win over the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A., first-year Jazz coach Hardy told the Deseret News: “He decided to wait until the 82nd game to get a bad-boy image.” He was kidding.
“He’s the nicest kid on the team besides Walker (Kessler),” Hardy said, “and then he gets thrown out in the last game of the year. Just add it to the list of wacky things that have happened to the team this season.”
In her season-ending piece, Todd wrote: “For Agbaji to get assigned to the Salt Lake City Stars for multiple G League assignments, it had to be extremely difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Through all of that, Agbaji worked really hard and he constantly reminded himself that being in the NBA is a privilege, in whatever capacity it is. Slowly, Agbaji started to get more minutes here and there when other players were injured, then he started to get used in short stints as a part of the bench rotation.
“In January, he started to have a more regular role, and ultimately Agbaji closed out the season as a mainstay in the rotation.”
Todd also wrote that, “early on, Agbaji was a spot-up shooter from the corner and was used as a part of the offense meant to facilitate opportunities for his teammates. He stayed on the court with precision, he made good passes, he played hard on defense and he didn’t go too far outside of his lane. Slowly (with the help of GM Danny Ainge who worked with Agbaji before games), Agbaji started to come out of his shell on the court. He started taking chances on defense — chances that paid off.
“On offense, he would cut to the rim, beat guys off the dribble, attack in space and eventually he started hunting for his own looks. In the latter half of the season, it seemed like every two weeks or so Agbaji was taking different shots, was playing with even more confidence and was showing off new parts of his game,” Todd assessed.
Agbaji said in his exit interview with reporters that he appreciated the organization’s patience during the early stages of his rookie season.
“It shows something about the organization, the people that surround us and obviously believe in us no matter who is out there. That’s the biggest thing, when we all have that belief,” said Agbaji, a starter on KU’s 2022 national-title team.
“I learned (during first pro season) it’s about showing up every day, being fortunate to be here and blessed to be here. I was blessed to get the opportunity to play every single day,” Agbaji added of the season’s final weeks.
Agbaji played some point guard down the stretch. It will be interesting to see if he’s used at the point during summer league and actually how many summer games he winds up playing. Normally the summer is a time that NBA players rest from the grind of the regular-season, working hard before the start of training camp in late October.
“Knowing what’s keeping me on the floor at the end of the day really is my hustle, my defense, my work ethic, just being out there changing the game when I’m not scoring,” he said in the exit interview. “Just impacting the game in that way.”
Of the change between college and the pros, Agbaji told CBSsports.com: “There’s just a lot more space out there. It’s a lot more mental, just because everyone’s at the same point of athleticism and focus level, skill level, talent level, all that. So really the mental aspect is what separates you and being consistent and playing the right way, making the right reads and being quick and efficient too. “
“I don’t think I have a ceiling,” Agbaji told the Deseret News. “As hard as I work, I feel like there’s always stuff that I’m trying to achieve, trying to go for, and I feel like the only person stopping that is me.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2023 at 8:17 PM with the headline "KU’s Agbaji, who emerged as Jazz starter in rookie season, on NBA summer-league roster."
