NBA
Why Orlando’s Paolo Banchero Is Not Your Average NBA Rookie
Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.
All posts by Zach WolpinUpdated20 Dec 2022
The Orlando Magic continue to try and add pieces to their franchise that will elevate them to new levels. In the 2022 NBA draft they had the first overall pick and took PF Paolo Banchero from Duke. Banchero was a dominant athlete for the Blue Devils in his one collegiate season. He and the Magic have won six of their last ten games and are thirteenth in the Eastern Conference. The six-foot ten 20 year old still has so much unlocked potential ahead of him.
It was clear in college that Bacnhero was different from everyone else. They way he handles the ball for his size and his soft shooting touch are all apart of why he’s not just your average NBA rookie. He grew up around some former NBA talent who helped shape his career.
NBA betting sites have the Magic at (+50000) to win the Finals this season.
These are the kind of shots superstars make.
Young rookie, team trailing by 2 in crunch time, shot clock winding down, on the road against the best team in the NBA, reigning DPOY in your face, doesn’t matter.
Paolo Banchero is a rising superstar. #MagicTogether pic.twitter.com/bNBYRSGGaH
— The Sixth Man Show (@SixthManShow) December 19, 2022
Growing up in Seattle helped shape Banchero to be an elite player
The Seattle Supersonics left Washington when Banchero was five years old and they became the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was lucky enough to be able to learn from former NBA talent that were from Seattle and wanted to help the basketball scene still growing in Seattle.
Twenty-year NBA veteran Jamal Crawford is from Seattle and said he saw something special in Banchero when he was 14 years old. At the time, Crawford was finishing up his final season with the Clippers and loved helping the young Seattle athletes who played basketball. He met Paolo for the first time when he was a six-foot five, 200 pound eighth grader. Crawford had this to say about his first impressions of him.
“Because he was really tall, most guys that size rely on their athleticism and being bigger and stronger,”… “But I saw the fundamental foundation that he had coming from his parents and the workouts. You could tell he put a lot of time in this game, and being big was an extra. I’m like, ‘Whoa, if he’s developing that game, you’re already ahead of the curve.” – Jamal Crawford
He joined an Orlando team that only had two players on the team who’ve played more than five seasons in the NBA. The Magic are a young team and have that foundation to build upon. Paolo Banchero is certainly at the center of that.
