{"id":70146,"date":"2024-03-23T21:30:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T01:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70146"},"modified":"2024-04-08T06:02:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T10:02:41","slug":"magic-paolo-banchero-praised-career-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/23\/magic-paolo-banchero-praised-career-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic All-Star Praised After Career Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Orlando Magic forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banchpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paolo Banchero<\/a> was once thought to be a carbon copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony, though beloved in his heyday, was seen as an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/21\/carmelo-anthony-vs-george-karl-the-beef-that-continues-to-live-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">elite scorer but a mediocre playmaker<\/a>. Indeed, among the reasons that Anthony\u2019s tenure with the New York Knicks came to such an unsavory end was the team\u2019s dissatisfaction with his ball-movement.<\/p>\n<p>However, Banchero can lay those comparisons to bed now. Even at Duke, he had shown himself to be a complete player that didn\u2019t force the issue. His decision to let the game come to him was seen as passiveness. Instead, it was a team-oriented approach.<\/p>\n<p>Now in the NBA, his patience and willingness to pass have come to be appreciated.<\/p>\n<h2>Paolo Banchero Praised After Another Triple-Double Effort<\/h2>\n<p>On Thursday, Banchero recorded the second triple-double of this season and his career, finishing the Magic\u2019s win over the New Orleans Pelicans with 20 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds. No other player in the 2022 NBA Draft class has even one, including Oklahoma City Thunder star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willija06.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As he spoke about Banchero\u2019s accomplishment, Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley had high praise for the 21-year-old:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Teams are loading up on him, defending him in different ways,\u201d Mosley says \u201c&#8230;He&#8217;s making the right play, the right pass, not forcing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">At halftime vs. New Orleans, Paolo Banchero had 4 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Magic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Magic<\/a> forward ended up with 20, 10 and 11 for his 2nd career triple-double.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s growth of a young man but it\u2019s also what an All-Star does,\u201d Jamahl Mosley said.<\/p>\n<p>Full remarks: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3obGnBL7vs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/3obGnBL7vs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason Beede (@therealBeede) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/therealBeede\/status\/1770998647716467153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen in the second half, and this is what we&#8217;ve said from the beginning about him, he reads what the defense is doing,\u201d Mosley continues, lauding Banchero\u2019s awareness and IQ. \u201cHe adjusts as the game is going on and then he finds his time to pick, time to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s growth of a young man,\u201d Mosley considers, \u201cbut it&#8217;s also what an All-Star does, it&#8217;s what great players do. They adjust as he sees what the teams are doing and they thrive after that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Playing Off Paolo<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Franz Wagner mentioned he feels \u201cwe\u2019ve been doing a really good job kinda learning how to play off\u201d the doubles Paolo Banchero draws on a game-to-game basis:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn offense we try to move the ball. Obviously, with Paolo [Banchero] he\u2019s drawing a lot of attention on the floor\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OVRAX0mhlS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OVRAX0mhlS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fawzan Amer (@FawzanAmer_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FawzanAmer_\/status\/1769551171662774680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">At the beginning of the week, Magic forward <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wagnefr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Franz Wagner<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"> spoke about the team\u2019s ability to play off of Banchero. Since at least last season, he\u2019s discussed the team\u2019s desire <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/magic\/news\/franz-wagner-orlando-magic-pod-squad-story-20221013\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to play off of each other<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">. This mirrors Mosley\u2019s emphasis <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/12\/magic-jamahl-mosley-key-signing-playoff-race\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">on pace and ball-movement<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Wagner said the team has \u201cbeen doing a really good job kind of learning how to play of Banchero.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Banchero has dished out at least 20 assists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/player\/1631094\/passes-dash?PerMode=Totals\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to eight separate teammates<\/a> this season. Most of these (75) have gone to Wagner. Wagner, the eighth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, is averaging a career-high 19.9 points per game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero was once thought to be a carbon copy of Carmelo Anthony. Anthony, though beloved in his heyday, was seen as an elite scorer but a mediocre playmaker. Indeed, among the reasons that Anthony\u2019s tenure with the New York Knicks came to such an unsavory end was the team\u2019s dissatisfaction with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":70149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1608,62,3],"tags":[4127,5019,3823],"class_list":["post-70146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jamahl-mosley","tag-paolo-banchero"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}