Rookie Spotlight: Orlando’s Paolo Banchero Already Looks Like Bona Fide Star

Through five games, Orlando’s Paolo Banchero is already fitting right in among the ranks of the NBA’s best.

The top overall selection in the 2022 NBA Draft, Banchero vaulted to the top in a surprise, day-of move. Thus far, it looks like that was the correct move.

Banchero is averaging 24.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game so far, shooting 44.8 percent form the field and 28.6 percent from three-point land. He’s also averaging 1.6 blocks per game.

Even more, Banchero has passed the eye-test with flying colors.

At 6-foot-10, Banchero has been functioning as the Magic’s offensive nucleus. With guard-like skills, Banchero has operated primarily with the ball in his hands, creating shots for both himself and others.

He’s seen plenty of legitimate defensive attention in his short NBA slate, something most rookies have a hard time dealing with.

Banchero has taken more shots than any other Magic player, including fiery second-year Franz Wagner, and is scoring at an even better clip than Wagner.

He’s attempting an unruly 9.0 free throws per game and hitting them at an 80 percent clip.

Even more scarily for the NBA, there’s several areas of improvement that could see Banchero’s game improve even more throughout what is sure to be a successful NBA career.

He’s hitting on 28 percent of his three point attempts, and has a clean enough shooting stroke to project that to rise steadily.

He’s also turning the ball over 3.2 times per game, which is to be expected as much as he’s handled the rock. Learning to handle the rock better will come with experience.

For now, everybody should be tuning into Magic games, regardless of an 0-5 start.

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