Hopefully, Ochai Agbaji will be remembered by the Toronto Raptors faithful for being more than just a trade asset Bobby Webster moved to dodge the luxury tax.
Along with Kelly Olynyk, Agbaji was traded to the Raptors halfway through Darko Rajakovic’s first season as head coach. Rajakovic recently spoke about having to change the standards and culture of a team he inherited in 2023, and Agbaji has been a Darko guy through and through.
Agbaji wasn’t great when he first joined the team, but he really stepped up last season, setting career-highs in almost every statistical category.
“His 10.4 points per game were 2.5 points higher than his previous high, which came in his rookie season. He started a total of 45 games in an injury-riddled season for Toronto after setting a previous high of 28 in his sophomore season with Utah and Toronto. The biggest leaps came from his percentages as Ochai was just .2 shy of shooting 50 percent and just .1 short of being a 40 percent three-point shooter.”
-via Mete Makarnaci on Agbaji’s leap in the 2024-25 season
Last season, when Toronto had nothing to hang onto except its defensive identity, Agbaji stepped up. He was reliable on the defensive end and offensively, he was a reliable and hard cutter, solid in transition, and always kept moving. He was Toronto’s wing stopper for most games, and he took on countless teams’ best offensive players. On top of that, he hit his shots – shooting an elite 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from downtown on four attempts per game. He was quietly great on a team that lacked greatness.
“This isn’t just best-small-role-player-on-the-Raptors territory, it’s best-small-role-player-in-the-league stuff. …. He is second in the entire league in made corner 3s and is shooting 50 percent on drives. And after almost exclusively shooting from the corner to start the year, he is drifting further and further up the break, but he’s not cooling off. He’s up to 38.7 percent from above the break on the year, far from the profile of a corner merchant.”
-via Louis Zatzman on how Agbaji was quietly perfect early in the 24-25 season
Admittedly, Agbaji has been shooting the 3 at a paltry 18.5 percent this season. Things fell apart for him when the Raptors really needed his game to sustain. He’s only made two or more 3s in four games. But the World All-Star coach continued to give him minutes as the Raptors got better. There was faith he would improve.
His star teammate, Brandon Ingram, has been on a mission to make the league remember who he once was. In Toronto, Agbaji showed what he’s capable of when he’s at his best, and likewise, will need to remind the league that he can be a reliable 3-and-D. Ingram showered nothing but praise when asked about the important cog in Rajakovic’s rebuild: “Really strong, can move his feet, smart on the defensive end, he makes plays, he can guard on and off the ball, he’s been pushing me since summer time.”
Agbaji has spoken about playing with “relentless energy” and his miles logged early last season proved that. This season, he’s shown flashes where he’s ripped down a board like Scottie and finished in transition. Against a win over the Hawks in October, Agbaji played both sides of the ball, forcing a turnover after helping on a switch and had a nice put-back after ripping down an offensive board during a Raptors’ run. There have been moments despite his down year. And he’s never stopped trying to find his way into this team’s performance.
Agbaji contributed to the Raptors’ upward trajectory, but will no longer be a part of it. Kira Lewis, Otto Porter, and a 2024 first-round pick were flipped into Agbaji and Olynyk, who have now been flipped into Chris Paul and Brandon Ingram (Bruce Brown and draft picks were also traded alongside Olynyk). Paul will not report to the Raptors.
There was a peak when Agbaji was an excellent role player. It is a shame it couldn’t happen this year. But he proved last season that he, even if just for a stretch, was far more than a trade deadline salary dump.
