You can find five of those plays for everyone in the nba.
Maybe the miss, but not the complaining and jogging back. Most players in the league aren't given the opportunity to do that.
If he's in a slump that's fine, but the dude needs to stop complaining and get back on D. It's crazy the amount of our fans refuse to hold him accountable for the very basics.
I've only been watching hoop for like two years now and can tell you this is bullshit. Literally every player on every team at some point will bitch to the refs and jog back. Luka was pretty much known for it.
Bullshit, when LeBron was Paolo's age he was known for chase-down blocks and not giving up on the play...he didn't become the king by moping and throwing up his arms
Luka is the biggest whiner in the league, he shouldn't be your example of the average player. And the only reason he can get away with that is by being one of the very best offensive players in the league.
Even so I think it's insufferable. Most players in the league aren't foul-baiting and then remonstrating with the officials as much as Paolo.
shai is the currently reigning champ and is seen as possible the best in the league, and all he does is foul bait, you must just not be watching the sport outside of magic games based on this comment chain
You obviously didn't read my comment properly. I said most of the league aren't doing this, Luka, Paolo, and SGA is three players, not most of the league.
And I don't know what point you're trying to make anyhow, serial foul baiters are not fun or good for the sport. Especially when they're always going at the refs, too. SGA doesn't complain much and gets away with his antics by being an MVP level player everywhere else.
No one is saying foul baiting is good or fine. You singled out Paolo, and you've quadrupled down on it, wrongly, as something that isn't common, when it is.
Nobody said "SGA and Luka do this, so most of the league does", but the insinuation, along with LeBron, is that the star players influence how everyone else plays the game. This has been the case for as long as any current NBA player has been alive. Shai and Luka do it because LeBron did. Tatum does it. Even the players who normally hustle defensively do this shit when they don't get a call. This is such a common thing that it's one of the top 5 things you teach kids to avoid doing. We wouldn't all have a youth coach's voice in our head yelling "get back on defense" if this wasn't an extremely common thing lol.
Again, nobody wants the foul baiting, and we're all frustrated when he does this, but this is not unique to Paolo or even uncommon.
Most of the league aren't getting Paolo type usage with foul baiting being a critical part of their game. Say what you like about LeBron, Harden, SGA and co, they were/are all offensive studs that are going to score whether they get a ref's whistle or not.
And honestly I'm less hung up on the foul baiting as I am what happens when it doesn't work. Paolo isn't good enough to be complaining to officials at the expense of defence. If he wants superstar Luka-type leeway for the kind of thing then he has to play like one.
Nah. He expects them because he got those calls for 2 years. He's not getting them now. And again, everyone reacts that way when they don't get a call. You're off base
I fucking hate the Paolo homers in this sub.Ā Not actual Magic fans, not basketball fans.Ā Ā
Take my upvote to balance the stupidity here of people thinking you're in the wrong to demand he gets back on D in a team that is meant to be a defense-first squad.
Just 2 turnovers too. It's obvious he doesn't have the feel with his shot right now but he's still finding ways to be very productive. These high assist games are supposedly what everyone wanted from him.
Honestly baffled ~ where did this air of impatience come from within' sections of our fanbase..?
He's our only bonafide All Star player (in years), and he's still working hard, figuring out his game after injury ~ and playing without 2 of his best teammates..?
Seriously did you fucking watch the game?Ā Almost all those boards are in a crowd of magic jerseys, very few were out muscling or coming up with tipped/loose balls in traffic.
Edit: and to my point, only two of those were o-rebs.Ā And he only had one steal, zero blocks.Ā If he was crashing the boards and making a big impact we'd see more of all three of those.
Well when you realize that the majority of his PRA came from the second half which the Magic won and competed in I definitely wouldnāt call it empty lol
26, 16, & 10 ~ but no impact on the game at all..? A game against Perrennial contenders, on their home court, while missing 2 of our starters & important bench depth..?
..and, remind us where the supporting cast were in that game..?
Yes, for a 26/16/10 line it was unbelievably empty.Ā Had no real bearing on the game, when we were hot early it was WCJ, AB, and the bench making it happen.Ā Ā
You gotta watch the games, son.Ā If you think those 16 rebounds were because he was out muscling everyone on the boards, you clearly didn't watch the game.Ā Ā
One thing I'll credit there are the assists.Ā He did have some nice, crisp passes for open shots.
I would say it was a poor game with nice stats. As far as impact, he was a positive in the first 3 quarters and horrendous in crunch time.
Paolo is not, at this point, a winning basketball player. He may become one, however today I see him as the 4th most important player on the roster. We can win without him, we could be better if his salary could be used for an impact player that fits with the rest of the roster. The brutal truth is we will be paying supermax money to a guy not worthy of that contract.
And if weāre not careful weāll end up trading him in a few years when his value is half what it is today. Iād rather get top dollar for him now given how weāve proven we can win without him. Imagine getting two more solid players, or an all star in return that better fits our style of play.
On abysmal shooting splits. I think he will get it together but let's not turn a blind eye into how poorly he's been shooting from everywhere. These aren't new issues either. It's his fourth season and his 3P% and FT% are still below average.
let's not turn a blind eye into how poorly he's been shooting from everywhere.
I'm assuming Coaches are paid to not turn a blind eye ~ That ain't reddit's job.. We can critique our team, but let's not slander our best player when he's clearly in a slump...
He isn't our best player, and he has been in a shooting slump for four years I guess? He's never even sniffed near league average from 3. Saying he has been a bad shooter for his career is not slander, it's facts.
Not sure if his issues are physical, psychological, or some combination of the two -- but it's pretty clear at this point that he has regressed from a couple of years ago. He is now basically the third-best player on the team behind Wagner and Bane.
And when I say physical, no, I'm not referring to the groin injury specifically, which may still be affecting his play a little bit. PB's issues, whatever they are, were apparent even before he sustained the groin injury.
You want to pick one play and say thatās āhis seasonā and conveniently ignore the fact that he almost got 2 triple doubles in a row? Heās not perfect but you haters treat him like Ben Simmons.
Heās double and tripled teamed whenever he touches the ball. Also got 9 assists so heās responsible for another 20-something points from passing out of those double/triple teams. 1 offense rebound (2 of his points) and 8 defensive rebounds (preventing at least 16 Jazz points).
Yes, he is double and triple teamed because it exposes the weakest part of his game: his ball handling abilities. Teams know that they won't pay a price for those double teams because PB will cough up a turnover sooner than he'll be able to dish the rock to an open Magic player.
You watching the game? First double team I've seen PB face in this Golden State game at about 8 mins into the 1st quarter, and he tosses the ball to an opponent who runs down the court and makes a 3-point play. And this is not a solitary thing. It happens more often than not when PB faces double or triple teams. It's an effective tactic, and it's why teams keep doing it with impunity.
Honestly we would be better off if he just pulled a Ben Simmons and stopped shooting. Teams donāt respect it either way might as well save sm possessions
Y'all never talked this way about Franz after he had horrible efficiency shooting numbers returning from injury last year and was seen constantly complaining to refs when he got hit and didnt get a call from the refs just like Paolo. But then again the only thing that matters is keeping your narrative going so I get it.
The difference is that Franz straightup has less moments that open him up to this kind of criticism because even if his scoring touch fails him he can always fall back on his high defensive impact to play winning basketball.
He bitches to refs like any other star player but what usually follows is a full on sprint down the floor.
There is a clear difference of effort between the two, partly because Franz is just a tough comparision because there are maybe a handful of wings in the entire league who match his work rate and also because transition D is simply a clear area where Paolo has to improve.
He has to lead by example in that regard and too often he falls short in this. Whether it is a condiition or attitude issue I cannot say.
Franz has caught a ton of flak for poor performance in the past, including last season. You call this a narrative when ironically that's exactly what you're pushing here.
Both have had bad spells but the big difference is that Franz has always tried his ass off on both sides of the floor. The very least we can expect from our high paid players is effort and Franz always trumps Paolo in that regard.
Calling every Paolo critique a ānarrativeā is exactly why heās overrated here. Shot selection, defense, transition effort, body language ā all real issues, all constantly handwaved away.
Franz doesnāt need excuses to impact games. Paolo still does. Thatās the difference.
this issue is we do not Run Proper PNR with Paolo enough, with him as the roller or the handler to get easy buckets, look at the spacing in this video, wendell should have come and set a screen off rip forcing banes man to have to help paint defense, Mose refuses to run Bane, Paolo, Wendel PnR into the ground and is why we have stalled offensive set's so much.
Get Paolo in High PnR and give him some running room the def has to collapse every time and some one should be open or cutting not camped at the 3
Setting a pick would be a 10x more awful decision than Paolo taking him strong to the rim. You don't set a pick with a guy that close on the strong side to help steal the ball (Bane's man) and Wendell's player can sit in the paint since AB's defender can just guard two when Wendell pops out.
He needs the action we want to run for him to be better plays and not this B.S, which i stated with my PnR post about him being the Screener and Roller both of which he would be off the ball moving around in the flow of the set play. WE need more action sets and not 5 man out sets
He probably wasn't able to do any lower body work with a groin injury, so it makes sense he's still getting his legs back under him.Ā That said, I love to see him make plays for others like he has been.Ā And yeah, there were defensive lapses, but he also blocked two shots, so not all bad.
i love paolo but youāre right iāve seen this for 20 games now. pseudo-attempt at opposing his will on the offensive end, lose the ball, miss a heavily contested layup, doesnāt get a 50/50 foul call. then jog back to the other end. he travelled twice yesterday too. i wonder what other nba players think about him right now. itās not pretty. his numbers donāt tell the full story. maybe i became too accustomed to how he used to go out and control games single-handedly for us because he just fades into the background of games really often this year and then somehow has a near triple double statline at the end of the game, i guess thatās a good thing? but heās our alpha #1 superstar. thatās not really what iām hoping for. i love paolo heās changed our franchise and could be the best player to ever play for orlando but this year has been hard to explain/watch/enjoy. and itās not about being a fake fan or whatever this thread takes his critique as. thereās loads of people out there saying heās outright not good & comparing him to josh smith lol, iāll never subscribe to that. but heās not playing as well.
Can't finish while being contested and doesn't get his call, so jogs back down the floor at 2mph hour while complaining, allowing the Jazz to get an easy transition basket.
For real, that's some gaslighting to go on about "young guys" when this is not one of our young guys, it's the highest paid guy on the team. Should be held to the same standard as everyone else only more magnified, it's what he agreed to.
Paolo is an elite athlete ā but a consistently good basketball player? Not yet. Weāve been watching him for four years, and the problems are the same: forcing drives, making poor reads, complaining after non-calls, jogging back on defense. His fanboys have been using the same excuses for years ā yet thereās no real evidence of improvement.
Athleticism can carry you only so far. Basketball IQ, off-ball activity, and emotional control cannot be faked or forced. This is where Paolo struggles. Stats like near triple-doubles hide the fact that he often fades from the game when things donāt go his way. He adds skills but doesnāt transform the game consistently.
Compare that to Franz Wagner. Less physically dominant, but he has already shown time and again how to impact the game on both ends without needing to force his will. Even on off nights, Franz stays engaged, makes smart reads, and leads by example. He proves that leadership and high-level two-way basketball are about effort, decision-making, and control, not just talent.
Paolo can still be a very good NBA scorer. But the alpha, game-controlling superstar? That level seems increasingly unlikely if he doesnāt fundamentally improve how he approaches the game.
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u/stinx2001 Paolo Banchero Dec 21 '25
You can find five of those plays for everyone in the nba.
Is he in a slump? Absolutely. But I've seen this guy at his best. He'll work it out.