Paolo Banchero is the face of this new Orlando Magic era. He is the star they drafted first overall during the rebuild. In just his second season, he already made his first All-Star appearance and led his young team to a seven-game playoff series.
During that series, Banchero stepped up his game, desperately trying to keep his team in the mix offensively. While it was not enough to win the series, it was quite impressive to see from such a young player.
In Orlando, Banchero has plenty of fans. National media has tended to overlook the Magic for quite some time, however. Even their playoff series was relegated out of the national spotlight at first.
Several national media outlets are starting to take notice, however. It is difficult not to after the Magic surprised everyone last season and were one of the best defensive teams in the entire league.
On the latest episode of the Lowe Post podcast with ESPN senior writer Zach Lowe, the Magic came up as well. Originally, Orlando was brought into the conversation as a comparison to the Toronto Raptors and one of the young teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference hierarchy.
Then, the conversation turned to Paolo Banchero, and Zach Lowe made quite the prediction about Banchero's NBA future.
Zach Lowe views Banchero as a polarizing player in the future
"I love Banchero," Lowe said, "but I also think he's on track to be a polarizing player in the vein of Carmelo Anthony almost, where his old-school, crafty, footwork midrange game is just so pleasing to watch and so seductive that he is going to become catnip for a certain kind of fan and then a hardcore analytics person is gonna say, well, he only makes 42 percent of his long twos, and I can see it going too extreme in either direction."
As the Magic gain more prominence in the Eastern Conference standings and the NBA in general, more eyes will be on the team, and therefore, on Banchero. He is, after all, the face of the franchise and will have the ball in his hands a lot.
Opinions have already been split about the Magic giving Franz Wagner a max extension. Some believe it was a great way to lock up a young star. Others believe it was a costly mistake. Once Banchero enters the ranks of the top players in the NBA, opinions about him will differ as well and on a bigger scale than currently. Thus, Lowe's prediction is not at all unlikely to come true.