Calling Paolo Banchero A Combination Of LeBron, Tatum And Melo Isn't All That Crazy

Jess Rapfogel. Getty Images.

By pretty much all accounts, the Magic nailed their #1 pick by selecting Paolo Banchero. The guy came in right away and had one of the better rookie seasons in recent memory on his way to winning the ROY in runaway fashion

As with most young players who enter the league, Paolo struggled a little bit in terms of efficiency (42/29%), but 20/6.9/3.7 is certainly nothing to sneeze at. As he gets older, the efficiency should improve and then he'll really be cooking with gas. 

With Team USA, Banchero showed some flashes (especially as a 5) that give you the sense he's poised for another monster season for the Magic, who I'm thinking could give us a similar type of susprise season like the Beam Team Kings did last year. Maybe they don't end up a top 3 seed because that's a little aggressive, but why can't they compete for a Play In/6th seed? They have legit young talent on that roster, they are long as hell, the defense is legit, they just need to figure out the offensive end of the court (26th ranked offense last year). Now with everyone a year older, it's not crazy to suggest that might happen.

It's also fair to expect that type of leap when you hear about how the Magic's head coach talks about Paolo

Mosley: Because the game has changed so much over the years with players getting more talented and higher IQs, you have to give combinations. Paolo is a combination of Carmelo (Anthony), LeBron (James) and (Jayson) Tatum. There are different combinations of things they possess. The passing skills. The ability to score in different areas. The power that they possess

OK, a few things here. First off, there's nothing wrong with a head coach pumping up his best player. That's whatever. Now I know seeing the names LeBron/Tatum/Melo might sound crazy at this stage of Paolo's career, and on some level I agree that might be a little aggressive, but I also see what he's saying. 

In terms of LeBron, one of the craziest things aout his dominance is how he's able to basically play any position despite being a 6'9 wing. He can legit play 1-5. The same is kind of true with Paolo. You sometimes forget, the dude you watched in that highlight video is 6'10. People that big shouldn't really be able to move as fluid as Paolo does. The passing part also intrigues me because 3.7 as a rookie is pretty good considering he's not the primary ball handler, and again being able to pass at his size is a unique trait, similar to LeBron.

The Tatum comparison is a little tougher for me considering Paolo can't really shoot threes yet, but what I will say is he's definitely a player who I would consider entered the league with the ability to be an effective NBA scorer right away, just like Tatum. His offensive arsenal is pretty advanced, and it immediately translated. You can give Paolo the ball and tell him to go get you a bucket the same way the Celts did with young Tatum.

With Melo, to me this makes sense when you talk about his ability to score in different zones. You can post Paolo up, you can have him attach in iso, and he's shown flashes of one day being a truly impactful 3 level scorer.

So while the internet may clown Jamahl Mosley for this, while taking it with a grain of salt I can sort of understand his overall point. Paolo isn't quite those players, but there are elements of his game that reflect those guys which should only improve as he gets older and more experience. He also did something similar with Franz Wagner, comparing his footwork to Middleton/Kawhi/KD

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Maybe once we get to the Spring and look back on the season I'll have egg on my face when it comes to being high on the Magic entering this season, and maybe I just have PTSD because they repeatedly kicked the shit out of my Celts with relative ease, but I just like what they're building. I do think they have some questions at point guard to figure out, especially if Suggs isn't going to be the answer, but I see no reason why they can't be on a similar path like SAC/OKC/MEM who are all young teams that appear to have nailed their rebuild.

I will say though if you're going to be tossing out some of these comparisons, you're going to need to make sure the team/players back it up once the games start.