What Is the Ceiling For Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic?

What Is the Ceiling For Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic?

This week we’re just gonna geek out about Palo banero because Palo banero is having a really really breakout season and I want to frame it this way Brendan I was just in thinking about him and thinking about where this NBA season is going and thinking about where that

Magic team is going he is really hyp up on my list of guys I want to see in the playoffs this year because I cannot wait to see how it stretches him how it pushes him how he adapts to it what he goes through he’s having the year where

His usage is super high his assist percentage went up his turnovers as you would expect went up a little bit but if you look at his turnover percentage for what he is it’s only gone up like a little bit on a usage rate it’s not even

Been a one to one thing is his usage ratio is better than it was as a rookie and he’s developed into a three-level scorer this guy feels like the complete offensive package the next step for him is going to get to be put through the ringer in the playoffs and see where he

Goes and see how you know he he translates in that regard certainly I think still room for him to improve in certain areas I think particularly at The Rim considering his size you would expect him to be a little better than 60% at the rim and kind of up his

Efficiency in that way but how do you feel about that is he is this someone you’re with like me you want to see how he goes in the playf see how that translates and see kind of what that brings out of him at this point in this career very very young

Career yeah to me he’s kind of the Anthony Edwards of this year’s postseason right he’s the guy that is going to get his first crack at what we expect to be a potential Championship type ceiling with him as one of the lead guys on a on a great team you know

And that does bring something brings High highs and low lows even ant who we both believe in he’s not like he’s averaged 40 every night every postseason game right he’s he’s a high turnover guy as well and gets kind of lost in the flow I know

An has had more than just one of those he hasn’t gotten out of the first round yet but I think Paulo’s in for something similar what is funny to me looking at sort of his statistical profile a little bit like you were and you mention the number it’s almost like the thing that

Paulo needs to get better at is what we already expect that he will eventually be great at which is getting to the basket and finish it it’s like that’s sort of it’s kind of right there it’s slow hanging fruit almost just with his physical profile how hard we know he

Plays and how Unstoppable he looks at times when he does play that way it’s like well yeah I mean you know he’s only getting to the basket a little more than a third of the time and he’s finishing at as you said at a 60% clip but when he

Does uh attempt shots around there he tends to get fouled so it’s kind of like if he can develop the strength and footwork and core core strength and balance to just get into those Tight Windows and finish through contact I’m not really sure how you stop this guy

And the passing and the playmaking and the you know cleaning up the turnovers that’s just going to come I think from reps we see all younger players deal with that all the time we just mentioned it with an but that feels like kind of the only missing ingredient if this

Shooting increased this season from is real we’re already talking about a pretty fully formed offensive player and he will be you know 22 heading into next season it’s pretty crazy what’s kind of sitting on the table for him right now this is also just a guy that I think

Some of this stuff if I’m making an argument for them being buyers at the deadline and for the sake of him and just in that specific vein Brendan I could see a world where they just go get a competent like I don’t need them to go

Get an All-Star point guard I don’t need them to get some someone who’s going to be their long-term answer I don’t think that player is even really on the market for them right now but imagine if they just got someone who is better at setting the table for him and maybe just

Gets him easier looks times organizes him better A lot of the times I feel like he goes Ary when this team just gets dysfunctional and this team ends up being a little bit all over the place in a way that means he’s freelancing it means he’s driving into contested shots

At The Rim you get a just bad pull-up jumpers yeah yeah and it’s like it’s like you don’t need to do this if you’re offense is functioning properly you get a world where they go get tus Jones they go get pick pick uh Monty Morris just

Get someone who can run the show and like distribute things and keep the trains running on time you’re probably getting just a little bit of an uptick in efficiency for P that could make a big difference again I think that that’s a long-term roster question for them and

How much does France feel that how much does Pao himself kind of grow into that kind of creator for others to kind of be the structure himself to some degree that’s obviously a big test for for any young Creator and will tell us about where his ceiling is

Ultimately but I think that’s just the thing for him if I kind of want to bring the best out of him right now I want that kind of guy on this magic team it would set him up for success I think in a real way if you get that kind of

Guy it’s funny it’s it’ll be interesting in like five years to look back on the randomness of some of it selected right they didn’t build the roster that way like you said but also they’ve had injuries also their draft position meant that fron and some of these other guys

Were naturally who ended up on the team and like you know the Vu trade they kind of won that trade but it’s like all right well you get Wendell Carter Jr who’s another big that’s the best asset you could have gotten from the Bulls but

Okay he happens to also kind of clog the pain and be a center too and all that opens up to make Paulo have the ball in his hands way more than I think anyone would have thought right like at Duke it was like oh wow and he can kind of pass a little

Cool and then in the NBA it’s been like all right brother win us some games you know what I mean and a lot of the time he’s done it like they they were pretty solid last year they’re legitimately good this year and he’s getting to kind

Of develop and get those reps on a productive competitive team like that’s sort of the best of a lot of different worlds I what it’ll mean for his role and his style as he ages but it’s kind of the best you could ask for in a lot of ways I just

Think as you’re describing with the with the guard play one thing that feels obvious and maybe it is fron and him although you can switch that pick and roll but he’s only getting 4 and a half% of his possessions as an offensive player this year or as a

Rle man yeah that’s not enough in the pick and roll that’s such a small number for somebody that you just imagine whether it is scoring or whether it is making plays in the short role as a passer allaha you know Blake Griffin or Draymond Green that that role is Taylor

Made for him so that to me is like just an obvious statistic that jumps out when you kind of break down how he’s been used and what’s kind of sitting there to be pulled at even more as they build out the rest of this roster so yeah but look

Like his floor is so freaking high this guy’s 21 and he’s already doing this stuff we just talked the other day about firsttime Allstars and we agreed he had a pretty decent shot at it he’s 21 he’s in year two the offensive game is Just insanely Advanced um it is

Insanely like competent is often not Phil Brennan like a compliment that is like fun to give out but there’s something really awesomely competent about what he is and again I I think that’s I think that’s more rare and is more valuable and I I think I at times

Have realized or valued I think just having like a baseline level of something does ultimately really really matter to your point about role men we talked about this in the relation to the World Cup in the summer about him playing at the five do you know how many

Have you looked at have you looked at the how much he’s played at the five do have you looked at just how wonky some of this data is so far no okay give it to us 138 total possessions that’s not a lot most common lineup with him at the five is 15

Possessions Cole Anthony Jaylen Suggs um Caleb Houston fron Vagner and then Pao there’s another there’s two other lineups with 15 one is Anthony Suggs Gary Harris Vagner and Pao the other one at 15 is Suggs Anthony black Vagner Jonathan Isaac and Pao I don’t they have too many centers

So this this is kind of the thing they a have too many centers that are decent right like because they have Mo Vagner they have Goa batat they have wend Carter Jr and Jonathan Isaac who really is only a center at this point because he can’t really do anything on offense

Right so you can’t like slide him there and then when they’ve done it it’s like it feels very much just like if you just look at this and then you go back and look at some of the film on this it’s very much just like we have to do this

At this one time and we’re going to ride it out for a little bit and then we’re never going to think about it again and you it feels like that and I think long term I want to see poo as the five where he’s rolling and doing Yannis things

Where he’s the fulm of the attack in a different way that might require I think a more trustworthy guard as your point guard than an Anthony or or a Suggs where fron maybe slides into like if we’re making analogies like a Chris Middleton kind of situation in that

Regard where he’s he sometimes runs a pick and rooll and often times is the team’s point guard but also spots up and does other things off ball there’s something here the data on it for this year is really bad offensively especially so and I but I don’t even

Want to you can’t even take some of this for much cuz it’s such a small sample and Scattered that it’s like hard to even like know what to make of it if I’m looking at this but I want to see more of it like is my broader point I want to

See a lineup at some point where it’s like 250 possessions and he instead of 4% as a rle man it’s like 10% of his possessions as a rle man and and I think he becomes more efficient in that even if we want him to do the the three-point

Shooting stuff and all that is great I think it’s going to be like one of the weapons on his tool belt right I I think we’re probably getting past an era where you want that to be like a constant look for you because size is King right now in

The league and yes they have a lot of centers but what they don’t have is a lot of big forwards he’s kind of the only one fron is not really that as a defensive player and so you’re probably are you switching a lot are you kind of overexposing yourself with too much

Aggressive help defense kind of like the Jason kid Giannis deployment uh back in the day and that can run into some issues with big teams or teams that have a lot of shooting so I want to see it be more than more than nothing which is

Pretty much what it is now but kind of where it ends up is going to be a cool subplot too and and what they see it as and how they draft and acquire players too because yeah I think we’re identifying right it’s not just a guard that they need it’s probably a little

More of those defensive wings and forwards that they’ll probably want to add to to build different types of line around him going forward into the you know distant future 10 5 10 years from now

Paolo Banchero looks like an NBA All-Star in year two with the Orlando Magic.

Brendon Kleen and Chris Manning dig into Banchero’s season, his offensive ceiling, what it will look like for Orlando to build around him, and more.

#paolobanchero #orlandomagic #nba #basketball
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