Paolo Banchero on if the Magic are good enough to reach the next level: “I want to say yes, but we haven’t been out of the first round, so if you’re going off the last three years, the answer is no.”
Magic players need a coach
And a point guard
I think this is the biggest thing - get a decent PG for PB and Wagner to work off, then you’ve got something really good. Paolo just can’t facilitate like Magic want him to, and his offensive game opens up so much more if he’s off the dribble/cutting.
Paolo himself has called for a PG too. He’s not unaware.
Paolo gets shit on (ain’t nobody argue with me either because we know it) so much but this guy is a leader and a great player. He doesn’t shrink in the playoffs it’s just the team isn’t that great. Coach isn’t that great. Sure, PB has bad/meh performances but zoom out and look at what he’s working with around him.
It’s also big when the best player on your team is asking for something that he knows he needs. Being that self aware is what you want. Magic gotta improve this team around him
I’m liable to poo poo on his sometimes myself, but he and Franz have really covered for a bad bad bad coaching situation.
Since Mose’s first season, I knew he was not an NBA level coach, but I hoped he’d grow into it. Now, years later, everyone else senses how bad it’s been. Add to that the fact that there’s not nearly the depth others thought (the one healthy JI season when he came off the bench really made the rest of the depth look much better then it was…don’t @ me).
Hopefully, this is a wake up call to whatever new FO and coach comes in.
Is the expectation that Black will fill that role next season?
If I am the magic I am making the room to try to sign Coby white or ayo
I think need more of a traditional point guard. Someone to setup the offense and get the ball to Paolo / Franz. Although now that I’m looking at assist leaders, these players might just not exist anymore.
That was exactly my thought. With Chris Paul gone. Lebron is the only floor general I can think of and he’s not going to the Magic.
Well there’s Hali but that’s not happening obviously. Giddey is a great passer but he’s a non shooter and the Magic have enough of those. Maybe Trae?
I thought Hali as soon as I posted lol. But yeah not happening. I think Trae will probably be loved wherever he ends up, and will ultimately contribute very little to wins. Hes a good passer but, he’s not super efficient, he’s a high turnover guy, major liability on defense.
i really think depending on who Orlando gives up for him, Trae can be hidden well on defense as they have great defenders
lets not act like the Hawks have been built well around him since 2021
The hawks got a whole lot better after he left. Also I don’t think Trey sucks or anything but he just got traded for an expiring and a good role player. Obviously the league thinks he’s pretty flawed for everything he brings
Giddey has shot 36% and 38% from 3 the last 2 seasons. He’s not a non-shooter.
Harden, Haliburton, Jokic, Luka. Maybe Trae, Garland, SGA
Not Cade? Second in assists?
I’d add him too just brain farted
Cade, Hali, Luka
Not sure if it would have been possible financially, but they really should have competed with the Cavs to scoop James Harden. That would have fixed so many of their offensive issues
Both are just lesser versions of Bane tho. They need a legit pass first pg with defensive upside.
which would be who
^(Westbrook? (Kind of serious))
Theres Ja but he dosnt work well defensively with Bane as they make up a small back court
bane isn’t a bad defender though despite his size. Is ja really that bad?
yes
You keep your filthy mouth shut about Ayo 😉
Wagner for Kyrie?
I don’t see the magic trading Franz for a 34 year old
75% of the league is looking for a PG or desperate upgrade of their current one (including your team) so it’s a moot point.
Yeah PG is a super difficult position to fill
True Point guards are extremely rare right now. Magic just happen to be one of them teams that could desperately use one.
Paolo and Franz can’t be your primary playmakers.
Has to be a point guard that can shoot too though or else we’re still stuck with Bane as the only shooter.
Sugg would be so good off the bench or play SG. But hes not really a playmaker or shooter
What about Anthony black? I like his game
He’s a terrible shooter lol. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to put the fucking ball in the basket and in today’s game especially you have to be able to do it from the three point line and we have literally one player that can be trusted to shoot from range.
i think Trae is your only real option & maybe Garland if you can convince LAC
This more than anything.
Yeah, Suggs is definitely more of a SG.
Where’s Ish Smith when you need him?
Coach/PG- LeBron james
That Bane trade was awful and franchise crippling
The Magic have a great coach, the Kings should take him
What he say fuck me for
Idk you guys could use his services
Some young team that just wants a players coach like the Jazz should unironically take him but he should be let go when they start maturing.
Yeah Mosley is a fucking basketball terrorist
Nope, Magic players need a Injury Prevention Specialist
I unironically feel that Mike Brown would be a magical fit
They need a Doctor. Fortunately one is available.
This series made me like him more ngl
The only thing you can knock Paolo for is his efficiency, he’s a good locker room guy, says all the right things to media and plays his heart out every game. Hope to see the kid succeed.
I think with better tactics and a decent PG, his efficiency would change tremendeously. A lot of time he starts chucking at random times or tries to play hero all when not necessary and if he doesnt hit, it completely collapses his rythm
I think he’s in a bit of a similar situation to Cade. The lack of shooting and another playmaker lead to a lot of turnovers. They both need to clean up their last, but I think roster tweaks would have a huge impact for each of them
Fair assessment. Both would be tremendously better if they were more efficient from 3. Both know how to take over games though when its needed. I think Cades game is a bit more refined in that aspect.
Cant really speak on Paolo but Cade has made phenomenal progress over the last couple years. Really grown into a leader and has improved on both ends of the court. Really think we need another piece next to him though. Tobias Harris has been solid but not sure we can continue counting on that. Not long term anyways. I like Duncan Robinson but think he’d be much more effective as a 6th man.
Theyre a fun team though. Its just funny to me how successful Pistons teams are all kind of reminiscent of eachother. The franchise definitely has a style they like to stick to lol.
100%. If he can have another solid option and take some pressure off, I’d hope a lot of these tough shots he takes would diminish and his efficiency goes way up
That’s exactly right. A lot of great players can start to look bad when they are forced to do all the playmaking and do hero ball, and it’s exhausting because they have to carry the load constantly. An all-star caliber point guard would do wonders for the Magic and Paulo. If they do that and keep their defensive identity they are a 54+ win team a year in contention mix for years to come.
I’m surprised at how reactive people are and crying for him to get traded and stuff. It’s just such blatant stupidity. He’s a #1 pick that’s only 23 years old right now getting better every year and getting his reps in. You don’t trade that player, you trade everyone around them. Just because your best player can’t do everything on offense like Luka or Brunson doesn’t mean you can’t build a successful team around them.
He desperately needs a real PG.
And has shown he can step up in a big way in a game 7. He was great.
had 38 in game 7 at cleveland also
Magic fans were literally saying he threw the first play-in game to try and get Mosley fired
He was honestly that bad
Tobias Harris cooked him all series tho
Bro what are you talking about, you have no idea who is and isn’t a good locker room guy
As much flak as the guy gets I think he’s navigated it pretty well. It hasn’t been perfect but compare him to let’s say KD, Giannis or even Kyrie he’s a saint lmao. Paulo is mostly a classy bloke but he does get in his own head sometimes.
Same. Game 5 was such a good game and so was today’s from him
Me too.
100%
For sure. Kid can ball and has a great attitude.
TBH I was buying into the Paolo slander and the play-in game vs y’all seemed to confirm that, but my opinion on him completely changed after this series. The Magic to me look like a talented group of guys that is in desperate need of cohesion
Thanks for not lying
Franz being healthy and they advance that’s the truth as a Pistons fan.
Yeah it’s hard to believe both “we would’ve won if we were healthy” and “we absolutely fucking blew it” but both are true. I mean I don’t think healthy Franz means we’d absolutely 100% advance, the games were close and Detroit had the best player in the series, but I think there’s at least a 90% chance we don’t blow a 3-1 lead with him playing.
It’s hard to imagine you guys blowing that game 6 lead with Franz out there. He was giving Cade all sorts of trouble in games 3&4.
Franz is such an underrated defender
Lowkey cause he’s a white dude
Sneaky athletic and plays the game the right way
Don’t forget the class!
Yeah I think Magic fans know how good he is but the rest of the league doesn’t. I am a Michigan fan and saw him lock down everyone in college. I didn’t know he would be this much of a scorer in the NBA though.
This is it. I really don’t think people outside of Magic fans understand how good of a defender he is. And they probably never will because no one else watches the Magic ha.
Multiple times in 3 and 4 you could see Cade starting to get hot and then Wagner would just always fuck up whatever he was trying to do and shut him down. Forced the rest of the pistons squad to have to step up and they struggled. Without Franz you had both Cade and Ausur available to do what they wanted.
Someone made a post in the subreddit but Cade had the worst efficiency when being guarded by Franz.
And specifically he makes the Wendell on Cade switch work by being able to at least somewhat hold his own against a center in a way that Cain or AB couldn’t.
I think most of us are reasonable about what probably would have happened if he stayed healthy.
I also think it’s reasonable that a week ago Cade was still working back from a collapsed lung and that had something to do with him going back to mvp candidate form.
It’s also reasonable that this is what the Magic are; a team that’s always injured with a shitty coach and an inconsistent top player. That’s why they were the 8 seed to begin with and not the 2-3 seed, and it’s why they blew a 3-1 lead to a team with only 1 playmaker.
Quite possibly. It was a bad matchup for Detroit.
However, Orlando can only blame themselves for being an 8th seed. A position they had no business being in.
I think they only had around 20 games with all of their starters healthy.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Orlando is running out of excuses.
they were literally one of the most injured teams all season lmao
How many more years are we going to keep hearing excuses for Orlando not doing this or that?
At some point, they are who we thought they are.
Shoulda what? Shoulda not had our best two-way player get injured? I mean… yes, that would have been fantastic, and if you know how to stop players from having freak injuries, I’m all ears.
Up until game 7, Franz had still guarded Cade the majority of the possessions in the series, and was holding Cade to who his lowest efficiency. no coincidence he broke out that last 3 games
Franz was spooky. Grateful he was out these games
Franz is always injured though. Time to move on from him
He’s played 80% of games over his career. Just caught the oblique pandemic last year and then had his high ankle sprain issue this year
Banchero gets a lot of crap. But, for the most part, he did everything he could.
However he’ll be remembered for his performance in game six.
That feels unfair Banchero did all he could realistically
They need a new point guard
Orlando was taking Detroit belt to ass in the first half of game six.
Banchero was pretty much non-existent for the entire game. He is their star player above Wagner, Bane or Suggs.
I think you’re underselling how good our defense was in the second half of game 6. We gave them no easy looks
ironically paolo was the only one to really score in that time
They had a ton of easy looks, just couldn’t make them
Yeah lol. 10 of those 23 straight misses were just wide open lol
Half of those misses were wide open shots though
I mean he laid an egg in game 6. That inconsistency is kind of how Cade was last year and the year before. It’s the difference in this series.
He did exactly what he’s done all year and his career, a couple games of greatness surrounded by a lot of eh or crap, he’s just too inconsistent right now.
He is more of a 2 or 3 option to me.
Paolo is a number 1
You get like one really good game a series from him.
he had a couple good games this series
He had 3 games where was above average scoring efficiency, the other 4 games should make anyone who values his archetype think twice before they compare him to Carmelo.
Sorry Magic fans
They barely made it out of the play in tournament… then they smoked the hornets to barely make the playoffs and then took the #1 seed to 7 games
If they played all year like they did the last 8 games they would be a top 3 seed in the east
Yeah but if we played all year like we did in the hornets game we’d be the 17 warriors
Wouldn’t say barely when they fucking smoked the hornets
This sounds like Connor Mcdavid cause he says his team is not good enough lol
We are a poverty franchise
They need to move on from Suggs and get a real point guard
Still like alot of things suggs does, defensively really solid if he stays disciplined, his shooting and driving is good for the most part though he slumped a bit in this series. He’s gotta get better at playmaking and his health is definitely going to be a concern for the rest of his career. I actually think their coach is the biggest problem. They got talented players, the offence just looks like they dont know what to do which is a failure in coaching imo.
People are just looking for scapegoats. Suggs is not your primary playmaker but he’s excellent at what he does and is on a great contract
Bane too
he is right, people can point to Franz going down when up 3-1 as the reason, but a properly coached, resilient team (ie. Minnesota) can still pull out wins in crunch time. We did not do that and majorly choked a huge lead at home in game 6. The team needs an overhaul (or at least a coach and a proper PG)
Suggs let this man down
I really like Banchero. It seems like he has a good head on his shoulders.
Jeff Weltman is the best GM in the world at building 1st round exits. The Devos family loves a couple of playoff games of revenue. It’s a match made in hell.
As long as the scAmway brothers get their shared TV revenue check, they are happy.
They are absolutely garbage humans. Fuck this team because the owners are trash humans
Welcome to planet Earth. Every single corporation on the planet is run by billionaires who are trash humans. Lol
love this man
axe mosley, dump JI/Jett and trade Suggs and let’s see what we can do next season with a new coach at the helm
I went into this series expecting to hate the Magic by the end, but really it’s the opposite.
Bane’s annoying, and Franz has some shameless foul-baiting moments, but the rest pretty much just play really hard and physical. They’re tough. And I particularly expected to dislike Paulo by the end, but the opposite again.
Hope they’re on the opposite side of the bracket for the next few years.
I feel like Cavs, Celtics, and Pistons fans are gonna be the 3 fanbases that back Paolo. He really ups his game in the playoffs and those fanbases actyally watch him in those games unlinke 90% of this sub and social media fans.
He needs to get it together in the regular season but he’s 23 and has missed significant time the last 2 seasons with legit injuries.
All respect to the Magic, they got some dawgs in their lineup. It feels like what’s missing is a good point guard to keep the offense from getting stagnant.
Playoff point guards are worth their weight in gold. Half of all NBA teams are desperate to find one
Steph Curry come on down
It’s the right answer.
I really think this team is a point guard and competent coaching away to make a deep playoff run.
Need to upgrade center too. Wendell can’t be counted on. Shies away from contact and just completely disappears anytime he faces adversity
Honest, but gotta be a bit brutal for magic fans to hear
Nah we are well aware. I think most of us are shocked this series went as far as it did with the coaching and roster flaws.
“Well yes, but actually no” type shit
“I need a new coach and at least two more teammates that can shoot.”
Bane was always the weakest member of the now disbanded grizzlies. And you spent a fucking bag on him. Magic are gonna need to trade Suggs or Franz
Bane sucked tonight but he is a really good fit next to Paolo and with all the injuries we faced he played 82 games this year and was consistently our best player.
But you still dont trade all those picks to be a borderline playoff team
That coach is so getting fired
I think they win the series if Wagner is healthy. Sometimes the dice rolls just aren’t in your favor.
Grass is green
Wtf type of question is that?
Dude should come play for the pistons. We would win the chip guaranteed next year
New coach, new GM, change at minimum 1⁄3 of the roster and make sure you add a starting caliber PG.
That’s a honest answer.
Imagine him on the Warriors with Curry
instant problems for the other team
a real pg a real coach and franz healthy are what this team need
Demand a trade Paolo, do it.
“If we keepin’ it a buck, we ass”
-Cam Ward
He needs a reliable 2nd and 3rd option
For the love of God, PLEASE get another coach and sign an actually PG.
I was rooting for this upset!
Realist answer
Can’t argue with history.
::Robin Williams voice:: It’s not your fault! It’s not your fault!
Shit…. Am I scared of him becoming a monster next year?
He is for real
If we were in Duke, we would all be fired.
Suggs needs to go
All those picks to give up and still not advance one time.
Crazy work.
Feels like they’re in a bad position. Capped out and cashed in their assets for Bane. Several of their best players are always injured. Not sure where they go from here.
If they could swing it, ajay Mitchell on this team would be great
Paolo needs a better coach or PG, or be traded somewhere else where he plays as Center
It’s fairly clear to me he is a modern Center. He is spending too much time cosplaying as a SF.
OP that’s not how you use quotation marks
Enlighten me
Look up how to punctuate when you’re paraphrasing.
Enlighten me, as I said before. How would you have phrased it?
The point is you don’t change phrasing when you use quotations. If you use quotes, include exactly what was said verbatim
Bro I’m not doing it for you, watching the Cavs. Just giving you some advice
Unhelpful, but thanks anyway. I truly just wanted to know what I got wrong.
No they are not
They mortgaged their future for Desmond Bane. GM should be fired immediately. Keep coach, he’s solid.
Coach is solid??
Banchero is a slightly better Aaron Gordon with the green light. They are both good players with great physical attributes that can’t self create at high enough efficiency to run an offense through. He would be great next to an elite guard especially as the screener or dump off when a team sends doubles. I think that was the idea with Bane and it sort of worked. He is a really good not elite defender and rebounder who could fit on an elite defense.
Gordon adapted his game knowing his flaws. We don’t know if Banchero will.
Gordon was at no point as good as Paolo as the #1 option
The Magic are absolutely good enough to get to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It’s the Eastern Conference, it’s the NBA equivalent of bowling with the bumpers on.
Yall literally have the NBA bowling with bumpers on Championship
Bro we got smacked by an injured wolves team lol
We put together one of the most embarrassing playoff performances in modern basketball history! That doesn’t change my opinion on the Eastern Conference.
Team that couldn’t get past a hospital team, with the quote on quote best player in the world
My opinion of the Eastern Conference has nothing to do with the bum-ass Denver Nuggets, who are an embarrassment to basketball and deserve relegation to the G-League.
Western conference vs Eastern conference this season: 621 - 609
Nuggets would get slapped by most teams in the east
lol absolutely not. Jokic is cooking every eastern conference center.
Y’all had a worse win percentage against the east than the west lmao (13-17 vs 24-28)
Nice edit
Eastern conference cope
Western teams use eastern games as rest days so that number doesn’t matter much.
You really dug far up your ass for that one, huh
Outside of the thunder and spurs, the West would get wrecked by the East. Too many teams that dogfight
Haha east bad! Upvote me