With time to reflect, Paolo Banchero reached a conclusion as to why he was resting on a beach in the Bahamas last month rather than playing in the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
Banchero didn’t point fingers at the NBA’s Eastern Conference coaches for not selecting him as a reserve. The 2023-24 NBA All-Star also wasn’t frustrated with commissioner Adam Silver for not making him an All-Star replacement.
Rather, the Orlando Magic forward blamed himself and used it as motivation to play like one of the NBA’s elite since regular-season play resumed.
“I’m always honest with myself,” Banchero told Andscape. “I looked in the mirror first. Over the All-Star break, I watched a lot of film over the early part of the season. I just wasn’t happy with what I put out. Some of that had to do with me being injured and coming back. …
“I could’ve had a better mindset, and that was part of it. But I know I’m an All-Star in this league. My confidence is still the same. It’s about being honest with yourself and realizing that you didn’t really deserve to be an All-Star, honestly. It’s about taking that with a grain of salt and being better in the second half of the season.”
Along with being frustrated with himself, Banchero added that he was “frustrated with the overall state of the team” during the first half of the season.
Banchero averaged 21.3 points on 45.4% shooting from the field, 8.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 43 appearances prior to the All-Star break. The Magic’s first-half record, however, didn’t help Banchero’s cause — they opened 1-4 before landing at 28-25 at the break. Injuries have also unquestionably played a role in the Magic’s struggles, as Banchero and fellow starters Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs have each missed significant time.
Banchero, the 2022 No. 1 overall pick, missed 10 games with a left groin strain suffered in early December, yet blamed himself for the Magic’s slow start.
“As a team, we didn’t really find a rhythm at the start of the year,” Banchero said. “Some of that had to do with me being injured and coming back. Just frustrating in that aspect.”
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Since his All-Star Weekend vacation to the Bahamas, however, the 6-foot-10 forward has been one of the best players in the NBA on both ends of the floor, helping the Magic rise up the standings.
Banchero has averaged 26.2 points (50.8% shooting), 9.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 10 games after the All-Star break. That stretch includes four of his nine 30-point performances on the year, and he’s a plus-102 in his past 14 games — in which the Magic are 10-4. Banchero entered Wednesday as one of four players (along with Boston’s Jaylen Brown, Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic and Denver’s Nikola Jokic) averaging at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists since the All-Star break.
Banchero and the Magic host the Cleveland Cavaliers in an Eastern Conference showdown tonight on ESPN (7:30 p.m. ET).
“Paolo has been ultra-aggressive attacking, getting early baskets.” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley told Andscape. “He’s also been taking on the best player assignments defensively.”
Those defensive assignments for Banchero of late have included guarding All-Stars such as Doncic, Cade Cunningham, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and the best frontcourt player or big guard on any given night. In the past 16 games, the Magic have a defensive rating of 107.6, ranking fourth in the league during that span. The Magic’s opponents have shot a league-worst 28.2% from 3-point range since the All-Star break.
“It’s me accepting the challenge,” Banchero said. “A lot of times coaches don’t want some of the better players to guard a [top] guy. They don’t want them to expend as much energy. But having Jalen out, having Franz out, those are two of our best perimeter defenders. So, I know I need to step up on that side of the ball.
“I’m big guy. I can move. I feel like I’m a good defender, especially one-on-one guarding bigger guys, bigger guards. Guarding guys like that, you’re not going to stop them from scoring, but you can make it hard on them, make them miss a bunch of shots, make them expend a lot of energy.”
An additional reason for the Magic’s success of late is newcomer Desmond Bane forming a dynamic duo with Banchero during Wagner’s absence.
Bane is averaging 20.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in his first season with the Magic, and he has scored 30 or more points in five of the past 10 games. Since the All-Star break, he and Banchero are averaging a combined 50.4 points per game.
“Paolo and Bane have a great communication. A great connection. They play off each other well because they recognize each other’s strengths,” Mosley said.
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While Banchero won’t admit it, it’s safe to say that the Magic’s biggest nemesis this season is injuries.
The Magic’s core four of Banchero, Bane, Wagner and Suggs have only played together in 11 games this season. Wagner, guards Anthony Black and Jase Richardson and forward Jonathan Isaac were all out due to injury during Sunday’s win over Milwaukee.
The most significant injury for Orlando has been the loss of Wagner. The 6-foot-10 German has missed 25 of the team’s 29 games since sustaining a left high ankle sprain Dec. 7. He is averaging 21.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists in the 28 games he’s played. An update on Wagner is expected this week, and a source says he is expected back before the playoffs.
“We can’t dwell on that and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” Banchero said about injuries. “We want Franz to be healthy and take time in his rehab because when he is at full strength, we are at full strength, and we know we’re a problem.”
Mosley recently said the Magic coaching staff and players have a watchful eye on the East standings as well. The Magic are 7-3 since the All-Star break and entered Wednesday in seventh place in the East standings, battling with the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and more for a top-six spot that would keep them out of play-in tournament territory.
Banchero told Andscape before the season that he believed the Magic were a championship-caliber team. More recently, the former Duke star said all is he is contemplating now is “playing well, finishing well and getting as high as we can in the standings” to make a playoff run. The Magic have been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round the past two seasons and haven’t won a playoff series since 2010.
“I have faith with the guys we have in the locker room,” Banchero said. “We have a load of talent on this team. We got two NBA All-Star-level players [Wagner and Suggs] sitting out and coming back from injury. As you see, we’re competing with some of the better teams. I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. There is no reason not to believe, but at the same time, we have to continue to get better and stay hungry.
“We’ve had two years of experience of losing in the first round. We don’t want to taste that again. We’re preparing for that.”