Losing Paolo Banchero to an injury just five games into the season was a tough blow for the Magic. Nevertheless, the team prevailed, largely because Franz Wagner took his game to the next level and emerged as a potential All-Star. Then, Wagner went down with the same injury, and the Magic were suddenly without their two best players.
Things got much tougher when Wagner went down as well, but the Magic always knew that Banchero’s return was getting closer with every day. Getting their stars back initially seemed like it would be enough to help the Magic turn things around.
That has not worked out. Even though Banchero and Wagner are back on the court, the Magic are struggling—in part because Jalen Suggs is out—and have lost four of their last five games. The team just does not look like itself, and the end of the regular season is approaching.
Several Magic players simply must be better for the team to end the season on a high note, including Paolo Banchero.
The Magic need Paolo Banchero to get back on the right track
Paolo Banchero has had some good games since returning from his injury, like his 41-point effort against the Golden State Warriors or the 36 points he put up in a 114-108 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
Other times, he has not looked quite like the All-Star Magic fans got accustomed to seeing, though. He has put together some inefficient performances, like his 5-21 shooting game against the Memphis Grizzlies and a nine-point outing against the Utah Jazz.
On the latest episode of The Hoop Collective, the Magic’s struggles came up as well. Brian Windhorst called the Magic’s fall in the standings the biggest disappointment of the second half of the season, and Tim Bontemps pointed to some troubling numbers in relation to Paolo Banchero.
“Paolo, since he came back from injury, in 22 games [he is] shooting 41 percent overall, shooting 29 percent from three, shooting 69 percent from the line on seven attempts per game,” Bontemps said, “When he’s on the court, they’re getting outscored heavily and, you know, they’re several points better when he’s not on the court…they’re getting outscored by almost 10 points per 100 possessions over the last two months with him on the court and their offensive rating is 100.9, which is abysmal.”
Those are certainly not the kind of numbers you want to see from your team’s best player, even if they are still somewhat recovering from a tricky injury. So, obviously, the Magic have to figure out a way to fix Banchero’s inefficiency as quickly as possible.
However, we should not overlook just how much the Magic are asking from Banchero, especially with Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner out for the rest of the season. It is not just the injuries either that are dragging the Magic down. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is having one of the worst shooting seasons of his career, Wendell Carter Jr. is having his worst scoring season yet, and Cole Anthony is averaging the fewest points of his career.
Other than Wagner, Banchero simply does not have much offense around him and sometimes just has to take bad, inefficient shots. Even if he had not missed so much time with an injury, that would not change. So, maybe the best way to help Banchero is to have a healthy and improved offensive team around him.