Philadelphia 76ers: Ochai Agbaji is a dream draft addition at 23

Welp, it’s official: The Philadelphia 76ers have retained the rights to the 23rd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

That’s right, while this isn’t the most breaking of news, as most expected this to be the outcome, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks has officially deferred the conditional draft pick secured in the James Harden trade in favor of an unprotected selection in 2023, which is largely considered to be a much deeper class.

And the best part? Even though the Sixers can’t technically trade the pick before the draft, as the Stepien Rule prohibits teams from moving two picks in a row, Daryl Morey can make a handshake deal with another team on a draft-and-trade and move the pick for a veteran performer, future assets, or as part of a larger, multi-player deal to get off of other contracts and/or aggregate multiple smaller contracts for one big one.

Or, ya know, the Sixers could actually use the pick and secure the best possible player they can find; a player who complements their new Big 3 of Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid.

But who could it be? Who should it be? If the draft falls perfectly in Philly’s favor and they can secure the next Maxey-level prospect who inexplicably slips out of the lottery to the 20s, who should fans hope to see sitting there at pick 23?

In my humblest of opinions, the player who ideally fits what the Philadelphia 76ers need and maybe, just maybe has a chance to slip to the mid-20s is none other than Kansas upperclassman Ochai Agbaji, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound wing with an ascending shot and defensive versatility.

Ochai Agbaji is the 3-and-D wing the Philadelphia 76ers need.

The 2021-22 Kansas Jayhawks were very good.

Winning the Big 12 regular season championship for the second time in three years, Bill Self’s club won the Big 12 Tournament for the first time since 2018 and parlayed that success into a dominant NCAA Tournament run that ultimately culminated with a 72-69 win over North Carolina.

And who, you may ask, was the best player in both of those championship games and pretty much every other Kansas game in the most recent NCAA season? That, my friends, would be Ochai Agbaji, who you may recall from a few paragraphs back.

A four-star recruit coming out of Kansas City, Missouri, according to 24/7 Sports, Agbaji wasn’t a one-and-done, can’t-miss prospect who went to college for a nine-month siesta before becoming a millionaire jet setter. No, Agbaji entered college as a part-time starter and gradually worked his way up to become not only the best player on the Jayhawks during his senior season, but one of the best players to ever don the red, white, and blue.

Considering Joel Embiid also called Lawrence, Kansas, home during his collegiate run, that’s seriously saying something.

But what is it about Agbaji that makes him so great? Is it his lights-out 3-point shot, who connected 40.7 percent of the time on 6.5 attempts per game during his senior season? Or how about is exemplary on-ball defense? He can lock things down at the top of the key, switch across multiple positions, and even rebound very well for a 6-foot-5 wing. Or maybe it’s because Agbaji is going to enter the NBA as pro-ready as any prospect in recent memory?

To some teams, drafting a 22-year-old rookie is a serious knock. Agbaji’s six months older than Charles Bassey and Tyrese Maxey and almost two-and-a-half years older than Jaden Springer.

The Philadelphia 76ers should not be one of those teams.

Is Agbaji the next Desmond Bane? Honestly, who expected the Desmond Bane who went 30th overall to become the Desmond Bane who finished second overall in Most Improved Player voting, but if you’re looking for a player with the same sort of 3-and-D upside, plug-and-play defensive stopping ability, and an ascending offensive game, there are few players better in this year’s class who fit that athletic profile.

The 2022 NBA Draft is the last guaranteed chance the Philadelphia 76ers have to secure a quality young player on a rookie-scale contract. Sure, they have second-round picks on the books moving forward and could always buy a selection a la the one used to draft Charles Bassey in 2022, but with the team’s 2023 second rounder officially owed to the Brooklyn Nets, the cream of the collegiate crop probable won’t be available to Daryl Morey and company unless they strike second round/UDFA gold. Fortunately, if that player is Ochai Agbaji, the Sixers might not be in too bad of a spot prospect-wise, as they’d have at least two legitimate blue chippers under contract on the cheap until, well, until Tyrese Maxey gets his max contract.