Magic’s Paolo Banchero is looking to dominate in Year 3, with an ever-evolving voice and game
Time is on my side, yes it is…Time is on my side, yes it is…
ORLANDO, Fla. – Mike Krzyzewski, as always, didn’t mince his words.
“When I worked at Duke, I was 18,” Paolo Banchero said Tuesday. “And I remember Coach K was waiting for me all the time, (about) using my voice, because as the best player and the guy on the team, you have to say something. You can’t be quiet. You can’t ever be quiet. Ultimately, being a high IQ player, I see the game very well. If I don’t talk about the game it’s a disservice to everyone.”
Banchero and the Orlando Magic have come so far, and so quickly, that it’s hard to remember that those admonitions from Krzyzewski came just three years ago, when Banchero was one of the last of the blue-chip recruits that Coach K got for the Blue Devils before retiring from coaching at Duke after 42 seasons at the helm. So Banchero is under pressure. How would you like to be a freshman and the best player on Mike Krzyzewski’s last team?
Duke made it to the Final Four in 2022. But the Blue Devils lost Coach K’s last home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. To North Carolina. And they lost in the national semifinals, at the Caesars Superdome. To North Carolina.
So yes, Banchero and the Magic lost Game 7 of their first-round series in Cleveland last spring, after leading the Cavaliers by 10 at the half. It stung a lot. But Banchero has felt it before. This summer, he worked on further improving his game and his body in an effort to make Orlando a top-four team in the Eastern Conference this season. Top four means home field advantage in the first round, meaning a first-round Game 7 would take place at Kia Center, instead of on the road.
“I don’t think there’s one area where you say, ‘This is the next step,’” Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said of his star player.
“I think it’s just continued growth, both on and off the field. And I think it’s really understanding how he can use his skills to leverage the game, to make his teammates better. He has his own things he wants to improve. I think, and we believe, he’s going to be an excellent three-point shooter. He will be a guy who regularly gets to the line while lifting his teammates.
Now 21, Banchero made his first All-Star team last season, following up his 2022-2023 Rookie of the Year campaign. He became the youngest player in NBA history to lead his team in scoring, rebounds and assists in a single season. The Magic followed suit, recording 47 wins last year, just two seasons after going 22-60. He remained a robust presence in the center post and showed that he could draw fouls at a high rate at his young age (his seven free throw attempts per game were 10th in the league last season, tied with Damian Lillard).
And in his first playoff series, Banchero further elevated his game. An average 3-point shooter (32 percent) in his first two regular seasons, Banchero reached a new level in the Cleveland Series, shooting 40 percent (16 of 40) on 3s and splashing them with more confidence than he ever has before had shown. His usage rate, already high (29.2) in the regular season, was even more robust (33.9) against the Cavs.
Banchero’s meteoric rise has made Center Orlando perhaps the team with the highest ceiling in the league. Certainly, there isn’t a team in the East with a longer runway over the next five to seven years with this much young talent on the roster.
You could say that the core of Oklahoma City, led by 26-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, flanked by 22-year-old Chet Holmgren, 23-year-old Jalen Williams and 25-year-old Luguentz Dort and now including The 26-year-old Isaiah Hartenstein is just as good, if not better, than Orlando’s. But Magic forward Franz Wagner turned 23 in August, two months after guard Jalen Suggs. Guard Cole Anthony is 24. Center Wendell Carter Jr. is 25. And forward Jonathan Isaac, who led the NBA in estimated defensive plus-minus (4.1) last season, turned 27 on Thursday.
Orlando became a defensive powerhouse last season, finishing third in the league in defensive rating, using his devastating length and defensive speed to stifle opposing offenses. The Magic’s own offense has been in fits and starts throughout the season. But in Game 6 against Cleveland, Banchero, Wagner and Suggs became only the third trio of players 22 or younger to score 20 or more points in the same playoff game. (The Thunder let two sets of 22-and-under do it: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, and Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, both during the 2011 postseason.)
The Magic, however, remain level-headed about where they are.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” Wagner said.
Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero are the two standouts in Orlando’s young core. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today)
On the floor, Banchero continued his upward trajectory on offense last season, responding to coach Jamahl Mosley’s challenges to be quicker with his decisions offensively and improve defensively. But there is still a lot of room for further improvement. Banchero ranks just 102nd in the league in estimated offense plus-minus, according to Dunks & Threes. He has to get better off the dribble and in pick-and-rolls.
Banchero spent most of the summer in his native Seattle, where his personal trainer got him through it, including a few circuits on an incline known locally as “Heart Attack Hill.”
“What I realized during the playoffs is that you have to be in top shape to make a full run,” Banchero said. “After Game 7 I was completely exhausted. … In my head I’m thinking, Cleveland is going to play Boston in two days. If I feel like this (after the first round), how could I shake back for another series, two or three more series if I want to go all the way? It made me realize that I needed to get in better shape, so that was my whole summer. I worked on my body three or four days a week – sometimes lifting, sometimes agility, some days conditioning. I’m just trying to get in the best shape going into this season. And obviously, as the season goes on, I just try to stay consistent with my habits, and once you get to the playoffs, just have that second wind.
But the Magic also had to do something about their woeful shooting. They were only slightly better behind the three-point line last season (35.2 percent) than in 2022-2023 (34.6 percent). Banchero, Wagner, Suggs and Anthony all have great downhill moves, but there was no one holding the floor as a legitimate threat from deep.
Enter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who left three-time league MVP Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets to sign a three-year, $66 million contract with the Magic this summer.
The veteran wing has shot 38.5 percent or better from deep in each of his last five seasons, playing against LeBron James and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles and Jokić in Denver. With the Washington Wizards in 2021-22, Caldwell-Pope didn’t have a teammate nearly as formidable in the frontcourt, yet he still made 39 percent of his 3s. And at 31, Caldwell-Pope is exactly the kind of grizzled vet – with two rings – that Orlando needed to complement its young core. Veteran point guard Cory Joseph can get the Magic organized in the same way when Banchero is on the bench.
Banchero is a more than willing passerby. But now he has someone who can do damage when he draws double teams.
“When I talk to Paolo, it’s about him being in the post,” Caldwell-Pope said. “If they take two (defenders), what do you see? I always tell him: if you see the pass, you make the pass. If I take two, I’ve done my job. Now my husband is open to me. I need to make that pass instead of making a bad decision by dribbling through two. The more mismatches he can get, the better he can be. …I told him earlier while we were playing, if you see me in the corner bringing it up in transition, I’ll come over to set the step-up (screen) for you. That’s easy, 101 right there. Or switch or show, whatever they are going to do, you still have that whole side to yourself and you can get started.”
The presence of Caldwell-Pope and Joseph on the floor and in the locker room “makes us grow up a little bit, I think, with two older guys who have been on championship teams,” Banchero said.
“The story of our team the first two years I was here was about a lot of guys who can make plays and get downhill, but not a lot of guys who can make the defense pay by making shots on the perimeter. I think with KCP, those little windows that you have to drive because the defense gets clogged, with KCP out there, those windows open up a little bit more. And if they want to keep closing those windows, you just spray it on him, and it’s an easy task for him.
As a team, Orlando’s competitive window opens wide. But only if the Magic learns from Game 7 and continues under similar circumstances next time.
“My office is over there,” Mosley said, pointing to the third floor of Orlando’s ridiculously luxurious, opulent 100,000-square-foot palace of a practice facility just steps from the Kia Center.
“It’s stuck at the clip, 68-71, third quarter,” he said. “Franz starts bringing the ball up and passes it to Markelle (Fultz). I was just looking at it. A memory. To learn and really look back on it, you have to watch it. You have to feel the sting (again). But you can’t harp. You have to learn from it. You say, ‘Yes, it was bad. We should have won. One hundred percent.” But we didn’t. What are we going to do now? And that’s the only way you can become a great team, is to develop calluses.”
Internal improvements this season require the young boys to also feel comfortable with each other. It can’t all come from Mosley or his staff or Caldwell-Pope. Difficult conversations during a long season are sometimes difficult, especially with a young and still maturing group. But Banchero, who is clearly eligible for a rookie extension starting in the 2026-2027 season, and Wagner, who got his ($224 million) in July, know they’ll have to make their voices heard as much as their games are seen.
“Honestly, that’s something we need to grow into,” Wagner said. “We are not the outgoing personalities, not the shouters in the team. But at some point that will be required of us, especially of each other. We have a lot of respect for each other. We both really enjoy playing together. I think we have a great relationship. I think that’s the start, just having the trust that if you hold each other accountable, the other person knows it’s coming from a good place.
It is something that Banchero has had to grow in as a professional. Even if it was drilled into him by a coaching legend.
“That’s just because in your first year you don’t want to say too much because sometimes you’re not even sure if you’re doing the right thing,” Banchero said. “And I think I got better at it in the second year, but it was up and down. This year (I just want to) be a super consistent voice for our team and for the group. When I see something, if you just say it, it gives everyone, whether it’s the guys you play with, your coaches, whoever you say it to, it gives them an opportunity to take what you said and commit to to fit.
“Instead of holding it, and now the same s– continues, and you lose, you go back 10, 12 points, whatever it is. I think being a consistent leader and consistent voice will take us to another level.”
(Top photo of Paolo Banchero: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
