Throughout the current NBA season, one of the most anticipated teams to make a great leap into finals/championship is the Orlando Magic.
Making a big splash signing Grizzlies former 20 PPG scorer Desmond Bane to the roster to help them make this leap. Desmond Bane’s presence on the team will help their lack of spacing, playmaking, 3 point shooting, and ball handling; which were all things they struggled with last season. With the Eastern Conference looking very weak, having the star players of many teams injured like Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, the East is widely considered to be up for grabs. One of these teams being the Magic, but to say the least they are performing underwhelmingly. The main problem is their star player Paolo Banchero having a very poor start to the season.
On a surface level, he seems to be having an OK season. Giving the Magic 21 points, 4 assists and 8 rebounds, but when you start to look deeper into the stats and eye test you see the glaring problem. Banchero’s EFG (effective field goal percentage) is 49.2, being 6% lower than the league average. His 3pt percentage being 25% being a whopping 10% below the average. He’s extremely inefficient on the season while only averaging 4 assists. He is almost averaging 3 turnovers a game making his on-off numbers questionable.
The Orlando Magic have a 122 offensive rating without Banchero on the floor and a 116 offensive rating with him on the floor. While he is averaging a lower amount of turnovers compared to last season and they are amazing defensively with him, the concern about Banchero was never his defense. He could be a number 1 offensive threat on a championship level team but he hasn’t been performing well enough to be considered.
To dig a bit deeper away from the stats and more of the eye test, Banchero’s shot selection has gotten worse the more he has developed as a NBA player. Passing up many opportunities to take advantage of smaller players guarding him and take them to the basket. Instead of settling for a close to far mid-range jump shots which he only makes at a 53%, you would wonder why he doesn’t turn some of those shots into drives to the basket given his 6 ’10 bulky frame.
Banchero is still a very young player. Only 23 years old with a years ahead for development and potential to improve on his game even with things being shaky for the Magic’s number one pick. Without Banchero playing at an All-NBA caliber level, the Magic’s championship hopes are almost non-existent.
I do believe Banchero will pick it up later into the season and start to gain a rhythm, but only time will tell.
