No one is surprised Paolo Banchero (or Franz Wagner, who was ineligible) did not make an All-NBA team this year. No one is that surprised he did not receive a single vote.
The Orlando Magic fell well short of their ambitious preseason expectations and finished as the 8-seed. That is not exactly the recipe to win postseason awards.
The Magic were hovering around the Play-In Tournament at the All-Star Break too, leaving Banchero off the All-Star team for a second straight year.
Banchero also did not have a good season by his own lofty standards, averaging 22.2 points per game, despite posting career-highs in field goal percentage, true shooting percentage and even rebounds per game.
It was, in other words, not a season to celebrate all Banchero is. It was a season of mild frustration, continuing to hope in what Banchero can be.
It was that kind of season. Anything good the Magic or their star player did was seemingly erased by something frustrating or something that fell short.
Banchero's All-NBA "snub" is both good news and bad news for the Magic.
The good news is that Banchero not making All-NBA means he saves the cap-strapped Magic a little bit of money. Banchero signed a five-year max extension that promised him 30 percent of the salary cap in its first year if he made All-NBA this season.
But the bad news remains: The Magic's whole project bets on Banchero -- and Wagner -- becoming All-NBA-level players.
That might be a chicken-or-egg problem. Are they All-NBA players because the team is good, or is the team good because they are All-NBA players?
But the reality is the Magic need Banchero to reach his peak and reach his full potential.
This was inevitable with how the season turned out. It may help the Magic in the short term. But Orlando needs this to be the last year where Banchero and Wagner are not considered among the best players in the league.
That is essential to their success.
Banchero can't make the 30 percent max
The most immediate consequence of Paolo Banchero not making the All-NBA team is that it locks Banchero's first-year salary in his five-year extension to 25 percent of the 2027 season's salary cap -- a full max would bring eight percent raises, but it is not entirely clear that is the case with his deal.
If Banchero had made the All-NBA team, it would have ballooned his salary to 30 percent of the cap in that first year.
That will be a substantial savings. Especially with the Magic venturing into the luxury tax next season.
Banchero is due an estimated $41.3 million, according to Spotrac. That final number will be set when the league sets the salary cap in late June.
Considering Franz Wagner is owed $41.8 million and Desmond Bane is owed $39.4 million for the 2027 season, the Magic are already going to be pretty expensive. Saving a little bit of money helps the Magic with what limited flexibility the team has.
Before dealing with re-signing any players or adding any new players, the Magic are well above the luxury tax line. Orlando is prepared and expecting to pay the tax for the first time since the 2012 season.
As things stand, Orlando will only be a few million dollar below the first apron. With any addition to the roster and signing players to replace potential departures, the Magic are likely to exceed the first apron next season too.
It would require some additions to reach the second apron. But that might be inevitable with Anthony Black's extension on the horizon.
The Magic saving a little bit of money is not the worst thing in the world. It will keep the team willing to pay the tax just that much longer.
The Magic need an All-NBA Banchero
But the Orlando Magic know they are paying the tax. And that immediately starts the clock toward the repeater tax.
The frustration of finishing eighth and losing in the first round again is really about knowing how expensive this team is about to be. And while the Magic do not regain control over their draft picks back until 2030, their willingness to spend this much on a team struggling to make the Playoffs cannot last very long.
There is urgency to compete and reach the team's elevated expectations.
The only way the Magic would break this up prematurely is if they continue to struggle to get out of the first round (and even then, that might be them trying to swap out a star for another star to try to salvage this thing).
While the Magic show no indication of trying to trade Paolo Banchero -- even for a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo -- that is the kind of pressure everyone on the team will begin to feel. Without progress, things must change.
There should be a lot of focus on the pieces surrounding the Magic's star players. But ultimately, the whole rebuild project now depends on Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner reaching their potential.
That is an essential part of this team's story.
Wagner was ineligible to make All-NBA this season because of his injury absence. It would have been hard to see him make it at his rate of 20.6 points per game, even with his other impact stats.
Banchero struggled to step up in Wagner's absence. The team went 26-25 in the 51 games Wagner essentially missed (he missed 47 games from his injury until his return on April 1). If Paolo Banchero had carried the Orlando Magic through that period and kept them in contention, he likely would have made the All-NBA team as Jalen Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks did on the third team.
Ultimately, this is about where the team finishes and how close the team is to winning. And that is a responsibility that ultimately falls on the team's stars.
Orlando needed an All-NBA season from Banchero this year with all the injuries to still achieve its goals. Considering the Orlando Magic were one game behind the 5- and 6-seed Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors, they were not as far as it appears.
Banchero did not make All-NBA or deserve to make it this year. He likely understands that. It needs to be a motivation for him.
Because the Magic will only go as far as their stars will take them. It was clearly not enough this season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google