How Paolo Banchero stacks up against these young star players

Paolo Banchero is the babyface at the helm of the Orlando Magic's up-and-coming squad. Since high school, he has been touted as one of the best up-and-comers in the world. A semi-fresh 21-year-old has been putting the league on notice since being drafted first overall in 2022.

Coming out of Duke, Banchero was expected to come in and be the key piece of a rebuilding effort in Orlando with hopes of becoming one of the conference's best in a few years.

In just one season, he has led the Magic into the thick of the Eastern Conference race and has given basketball in The City Beautiful a facelift.

His talent was evident from his first game as a pro, where he remembers being dejected after a close loss to the Detroit Pistons and struggling to comprehend why everyone around him was in such good spirits -- until he was told he posted the first 25/5/5 split in an NBA debut since LeBron James in 2013 and scored the most points by a rookie in their debut (27) since Allen Iverson in 1996.

"“I remember just being genuinely pretty pissed off that we lost. And I remember getting back to the locker room, and our PR guy, his eyes were, like, lit up and he was hella happy. He was like, 'Yo, great job!' He asked me if I realized what I even did, and I was like, 'Man, no—I don’t know.'""

Paolo Banchero after his NBA Debut

This season, Banchero is well on his way to All-Star status. He has placed himself in the top 10 of both Eastern Conference All-Star frontcourt returns.

The question for the next month is: Will he make the All-Star team?

The long-term question is how he stacks up against other youngsters in the NBA. HoopsHype recently published a Top 25 under 25 list and ranked Banchero ninth. Here is how he stacks up against some of the best young players ranked around him.

How Paolo Banchero stacks up against HoopsHype's Top 25 Under 25

Zion Williamson (23), New Orleans Pelicans

Ranked 11th on HoopsHype's list, Zion Williamson is the most interesting comparison on this list. A fellow former number one overall pick out of Duke himself, Williamson has been under a microscope since he first stepped into the league, touted as next up in the line of NBA superstars.

Four years in, it has been an up-and-down ride.

Injuries have been the biggest thing holding him back. The most amount of games he has played in a season was 61 back in 2020 when he was voted to his first All-Star team.

Bookending that season, however, is a 24-game rookie season and a 21-game season last year, in addition to an entire season missed in 2021 after undergoing foot surgery.

At his peak as a player, Williamson is an All-NBA caliber player. He has made the All-Star team in his last two seasons (2021 and 2023) with averages of 26.5 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game and 4.2 assists per game. He is one of the top inside scorers in the NBA without a doubt.

Weight and conditioning concerns aside, Williamson's bag on the block is pretty large. Similar to Giannis Antetokounmpo's skill set, it looks as though Antetokounmpo simply uses his force and length to rip through and score inside. But both his and Williamson's craftiness and variety of post moves, combined with their strength, is a wrecking ball in the paint.

It is an interesting comparison between Zion Williamson and Paolo Banchero. They are both listed as frontcourt players (both forwards) but are vastly different in play style.

Williamson, with the few extra years in the league, has wrapped up a couple of All-Stars over Banchero. But outside of that, it is a pretty fair fight between the last two superstar Duke Blue Devils.

They have not faced each other in the regular season yet (March 5 will be their first career meeting in regular season action assuming both are healthy).

It is a fair assessment of both players to say that where Banchero clears is in his perimeter scoring and playmaking.

At 40 pounds lighter, Banchero's shiftiness on the wing is one of his key strengths. He is a great ball-handler and able to get to his spots on the outside and use it to attack the basket. As a three-point scorer, he is not among the very best but is right around league average from deep this year.

Williamson's outside scoring is a long-term concern for him with the league being perimeter-first on offense. He is simply an inside scorer first.

That is not a knock on his game but a positive on Banchero's end in comparison with Banchero's ability to be a three-level scorer. His touch around the rim combined with his raw power is an absolute force in the league but as a true three-level scorer, Banchero edges him here.

On the defensive end, Williamson showed up on the stat sheet right out of the gate. Blocks into the third row and ripaways turned into dunks were a problem for the league in his rookie year.

Again, Williamson's size makes him great on defense inside. But on the perimeter, Williamson's lateral quickness just is not enough to keep up with smaller forwards and guards on switches.

Granted, this was a preseason game, but Banchero's speed coming out of the transition was a lot for Williamson to handle. That, combined with his shiftiness, blew him by Williamson for the dunk.

As individual defenders, it is comparing apples and oranges. Williamson clears on interior defense, whereas Banchero's defense on the perimeter is much more effective.

How Paolo Banchero stacks up against HoopsHype's Top 25 Under 25

Alperen Sengun (21), Houston Rockets

Coming in just behind Paolo Banchero on the HoopsHype list, Alperen Sengun is developing himself into one of the best big men in basketball.

In his third season (second as a full-time starter), he has blossomed into a Nikola Jokic-type playmaker. Only he and Luka Doncic have averaged 21/9/5 at 21 years or younger in NBA history -- a great sign for one of the league's emerging bigs.

What sticks out the most is how methodical Sengun is as an offensive player.

In a league full of Jaylen Brown/Ja Morant speedsters, Giannis Antetokounmpo/Zion Williamson bully ballers, and Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson/Damian Lillard three-point snipers, Alperen Sengun is none of that. He operates at his own pace.

It is a "get him the ball and let him operate" type of offense but it is not anywhere closer to isolation basketball. He is looking not for his best shot, but the best shot overall.

Sengun is a crafty 15 foot and in scorer with a variety of options that keep his defender on his toes: half-spin fades, one-dribble push shots, subtle jockeying for position that never looks like it will go anywhere until there is a foot of space between him and his defender and his shot rips the cords.

As a defender, it is nothing to be desired. He lacks the mobility to be even a half-threat on pick-and-roll switches. On the inside, he is not the most vertical and cannot, at this point, be a true interior stopper.

The decision to have Paolo Banchero and Alperen Sengun back-to-back on the list speaks to his long-term potential. His development was a longer process than Banchero's, but it's understandable for someone who came into the league at 18.

Like with Williamson in the previous slide, it is an apple and oranges comparison here.

The main edge to Banchero in this comparison is that, while Sengun has developed into one of the best young bigs in the game, is his defense a big enough issue to hinder his development into a star in this league?

Not to say he cannot. There is a growing belief he has franchise cornerstone potential. He is one of the top three to five passing bigs in the league and a top post scorer already.

The defensive end is a pretty glaring weakness, however. That is going to be the big question for him to determine where he falls amongst other younger players over the next few years.

How Paolo Banchero stacks up against HoopsHype's Top 25 Under 25

Scottie Barnes (22), Toronto Raptors

Out of every young player on HoopsHype's list, Scottie Barnes is the player whose resumé is closest to the same as Paolo Banchero. Out of a class of Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley and the Orlando Magic's own Franz Wagner, Scottie Barnes snagged the 2021 Rookie of the Year, one year before Paolo Banchero entered the league.

Barnes averaged 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in his first season and used a February-April surge (where he won back-to-back Eastern Conference Player of the Month titles) to capture the Rookie of the Year Award. The Florida State product led a lowly Raptors squad -- who finished 27-45 the year before -- to a 48-34 record and the fifth seed in the East.

Barnes' versatility on both ends of the floor has been a huge upside in his development into one of the league's best youngsters.

He entered the league as a power forward, switched to the 3 in his sophomore season and is now running the 2 (with some 3 mixed in now that the recent trade with the New York Knicks slid RJ Barrett into the 2-guard spot).

Barnes sticks out offensively as a threat. He is long and quick and he has NBA strength that he took with him from college. From his second game as a pro, where he dropped 25 and 11 on the Boston Celtics, Barnes proved his scoring ability was NBA-ready.

What really took him to the next level, however, was being moved to point guard while Fred VanVleet missed time. He created matchup nightmares for opposing guards and centers (on switches). Defensively, he has played extensively on the opponent's best player and has excelled.

There is so much to enjoy about this comparison.

Banchero and Barnes are very similar players. While Banchero - at 6-foot-10, 250 pounds - plays at the 3/4 spots in comparison to Barnes at 6-foot-7, 217-pound frame, the differences largely end there.

On offense, they are both attack-first players when looking to score. Both players' biggest strength is their ability to drive off the dribble and create looks for themselves.

This season, Barnes has turned more of those looks off the dribble into three-point shots. He is averaging 1.5 more attempts from outside per game than Banchero. Their versatility speaks volumes to their offensive game.

But the real conversation starts beyond the statistics. Looking at the numbers, it is pretty much even. Give the edge to one guy over the other based on personal preference or advanced stats, but it is neck-and-neck.

The conversation of the best young players has to go beyond who is performing the best.

Banchero has shown in the last two seasons he can thrive as a number one option better than Barnes. Barnes is a fantastic facilitator and a better passer than Banchero. Overall, a guy you can plug and play into any team in the league, regardless of scheme.

Banchero, though, is a bona fide franchise player. He has had to be the number one scoring option in Orlando since Day 1 and has proven the ability to take over games with limited scoring help apart from Franz Wagner (and especially the case this year with injuries permeating up and down the Magic bench).

Barnes is arguably a better all-around player within his scheme but is not asked to lead his team with the presence of Pascal Siakam in the frontcourt.

Toronto, though, has been open to dealing Siakam as recently with the two sides nowhere close to reaching an agreement to extend his contract. That could be the move Barnes needs to ascend to the true No 1 up North, rather than the 1A/1B he flip-flopped around since entering the league.

As it stands, these two emerging superstars are going to be battling for an All-Star spot in the East over the next month. Both teams have found their franchise player and the question of "who's better" will be a long conversation over the next few years.