Magic’s Paolo Banchero seeks 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 ever, didn’t mince words.

“When I was at Duke, I was 18,” Paolo Banchero said Tuesday. “And I remember Coach K would just be on me, all the time, (about) using my voice, as being the best player and the guy on the team, you’ve got to speak up. You can’t be quiet. You can’t ever be quiet. Because at the end of the day, I’m a high-IQ player, I see the game really well. If I’m not out there talking the game, it’s doing everyone a disservice.”

Banchero and the Orlando Magic have come so far, and so fast, it’s hard to remember those admonitions from Krzyzewski came just three years ago, when Banchero was among the last of the blue-chip recruits Coach K got for the Blue Devils before retiring from coaching at Duke after 42 seasons at the helm. So, Banchero knows pressure. How’d you like to be a freshman, and the best player, on Mike Krzyzewski’s last team?

Duke made 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 semifinal, in the Caesars Superdome. To North Carolina.

So, yes, Banchero and the Magic losing Game 7 of their first-round series in Cleveland last spring, after leading the Cavaliers by 10 at the half, stung. It stung badly. But Banchero’s felt it before. This summer, he worked to further improve his game and his body in a push to make Orlando a top-four team in the Eastern Conference this season. Top four means home-court advantage in the first round, which means a Game 7 in the first round would be at Kia Center, rather than on the road.

“I don’t think there’s one area where you say, ‘Here’s the next step,’” said Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman about his star player.

“I think it’s just continued growth, on and off the court. And I think it’s really understanding how he can use his abilities to leverage the game, to make his teammates better. He’s got his own stuff that he wants to improve on. I think, we believe, he’s going to be an excellent 3-point shooter. He’s going to be a guy who gets to the line frequently while he is lifting up his teammates.”

Now 21, Banchero made his first All-Star team last season, following up his Rookie of the Year campaign of 2022-23. He became the youngest player in NBA history to lead his team in scoring, rebounds and assists in a single season. The Magic followed his lead, vaulting up to 47 wins last year, just two seasons after going 22-60. He continued to be a robust presence in the mid-post, showing he could draw fouls at a rapid rate at his still-young age (his seven free-throw attempts per game was 10th in the league last season, tying with Damian Lillard).

And in his first playoff series, Banchero raised his game further. A mediocre 3-point shooter (32 percent) in his first two regular seasons, Banchero leveled up in the Cleveland series, shooting 40 percent (16 of 40) on 3s, splashing them with more confidence than he’d ever shown before. His usage rate, already high (29.2) in the regular season, was even more robust (33.9) against the Cavs.

Banchero’s rapid rise has helped center Orlando as, 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 so much young talent on its roster.

You can make an argument that Oklahoma City’s core, 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 26-year-old Isaiah Hartenstein, is as good, or 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 last season in estimated defensive plus-minus (4.1), turned 27 on Thursday.

Orlando became a defensive powerhouse last season, finishing third in the league in defensive rating, using its withering length and defensive quickness to suffocate opposing offenses. The Magic’s own offense came in fits and starts during the season. But in Game 6 against Cleveland, Banchero, Wagner and Suggs became just the third trio of players aged 22 or younger to score 20 or more points in the same playoff game. (The Thunder had two sets of 22-and-unders do it: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, and Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, both during the 2011 postseason.)

The Magic, though, remain sober about where they are.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Wagner said.

On the floor, Banchero continued his upward path on offense last season, responding to coach Jamahl Mosley’s challenges to be quicker with his decisions offensively and to improve defensively. But there’s still a lot of room for further improvement. Banchero ranked just 102nd in the league in estimated offense plus-minus, per Dunks & Threes. He needs 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 put him through it, including a couple of circuits up a slope known locally as “Heart Attack Hill.”

“What I realized in the playoffs is that it takes you being in tip-top, elite shape to make a full run,” Banchero said. “After that Game 7, I was all the way spent. … In my head, I’m like, Cleveland’s going to play Boston in two days. If I feel like this (after the first round), how would I be able to shake back for another series, another two or three more series if I want to go all the way? It made me realize that I have 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. Just trying to get in the best shape heading into this season. And obviously, as the season goes on and on, just trying to stay consistent with my habits, and once you get to the playoffs, just having that second wind.”

But the Magic also needed to address their woeful shooting. They were only slightly better behind the 3-point line last season (35.2 percent) than they were in 2022-23 (34.6 percent). Banchero, Wagner, Suggs and Anthony all get downhill great, but there was no one who spaced the floor as a legit threat from deep.

Enter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who left a three-time league MVP in the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić to sign a three-year, $66 million deal this summer with the Magic.

The veteran wing has shot 38.5 percent or better from deep in each of his last five seasons, playing off LeBron James and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles and Jokić in Denver. With the Washington Wizards in 2021-22, Caldwell-Pope didn’t have any teammate nearly as formidable in the frontcourt, yet still made 39 percent of his 3s. And at 31, Caldwell-Pope is exactly the kind of grizzled vet — with two rings — Orlando needed to complement its young core. Veteran point guard Cory Joseph can similarly get the Magic organized when Banchero is on the bench.

Banchero’s a more than willing passer. 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. “When they bring two (defenders), what you see? I always tell him, if you see the pass, you make the pass. If I bring two, I’ve done my job. Now, my man is open in front of me. I’ve got to make that pass instead of making a bad decision trying to (dribble) through two. The more mismatches he can get, the better he can be. … I was telling him earlier while we were playing, if you see me in the corner when you’re bringing it up in transition, I’m coming over to set the step-up (screen) for you. That’s easy, 101 right there. Or switch or show, whatever they’re going to do, you still have that whole side to yourself, and you can go to work.”

Caldwell-Pope’s and Joseph’s presence on the floor and in the locker room “makes us grow up a little bit, I think, with two older guys who’ve been on championship teams,” Banchero said.

“The story of our team, the first two years I was here, was having a lot of guys that can make plays and get downhill but not a lot of guys that can make a defense pay by making shots on the perimeter. I think with KCP, those small windows that you have to drive because the defense is plugging, with KCP out there, those windows open up a little more. And if they want to keep plugging those windows, you just spray it to him, and it’s an easy knockdown for him.”

As a team, Orlando’s contending window is opening, wide. But only if the Magic learn from Game 7 and move forward in similar circumstances the next time.

“My office is right there,” Mosley said, pointing up to the third floor of Orlando’s ridiculously plush, lavish, 100,000 square-foot palace of a practice facility a block from Kia Center.

“It’s stuck at the clip, 68-71, third quarter,” he said. “Franz is starting to bring the ball up, passes it to Markelle (Fultz). I was just watching it. A reminder. To learn and to really reflect back, 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, ‘Yeah, it sucked. We should have won. Hundred percent.’ But we didn’t. So, now, what are we going to do? And that’s the only way you become a great team, is by getting callouses.”

Internal improvement this season will require the young guys to get comfortable being uncomfortable with one another too. It can’t all come from Mosley or his staff or Caldwell-Pope. Tough conversations during a long season are sometimes difficult, especially with a young and still-maturing group. But Banchero, who is obviously in line for a rookie extension starting with the 2026-27 season, and Wagner, who got his ($224 million) in July, know they will have to make their voices heard as much as their games are seen.

“Honestly, that’s something we have to grow into,” Wagner said. “We’re not the super-outgoing personalities, not the yellers on the team. At some point, that’s going to be required from us, though, especially with each other. We’ve got a great deal 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 that trust that when you are holding each other accountable, the other person knows it’s coming from a good place.”

It’s something Banchero has had to grow into as a pro. Even if it was drilled into him by a coaching legend.

“That just comes with, your first year, you don’t want to say too much, because you’re not even sure you’re doing the right thing sometimes,” Banchero said. “And I think my second year I got better at it, but it was up and down. This year, (I want to be) just a super consistent voice for our team and for the group. When I see something, when you just say it, it gives everyone, whether it’s the guys you’re playing with, your coaches, whoever you say it to, it gives them a chance to take what you said and adjust.

“Instead of you holding it, and now the same s— keeps going on, and you lose, you go down 10, 12 points, whatever it may be. I think me just being a consistent leader and consistent voice is going to take us to another level.”

(Top photo of Paolo Banchero: Jason Miller / Getty Images)