Breaking Down Desmond Bane’s Game with Josh Cohen

Breaking Down Desmond Bane’s Game with Josh Cohen

for much of this past season and certainly right after it ended many wondered what type of player would fit best on the Orlando Magic around cornerstones Paulo Benro and France Vagner without a doubt Desmond Bane checks pretty much all the boxes here’s a breakdown of the 6’5 215-lb shooting guards all-around game first off Bane’s sweet spot is at and near the top of the key he is an elite shooter from straight away since 2020 which is when he came into the league he has shot 44.3% from this region on 610 attempts in the regular season among the 186 players in this time frame who have attempted at least 200 of them that mark ranks number one even more impressive is that he shoots it extremely well from this area regardless of whether it’s catch and shoot or off the dribble with at least one dribble preceding the shot bane has shot 41.5% from the top of the key in his career since 2020 that’s the third best mark among the 64 players who have taken at least 200 of them in this time on the topic of long range shooting Bane is excellent shooting threes in transition in 2024-25 he shot an incredible 48.5% from downtown in transition among the 42 players who took at least 60 of them that ranked number one another shooting category Bane thrives at is scoring coming off an off ball screen last year he took 140 shots in these situations and had an effective field goal percentage of 60.9% which is a stat that adjusts for the fact that three-point field goals are worth more than two-point field goals among the 62 players who took at least 100 of these shots Bane’s mark ranked third in the league while he’s always been known for his shooting Bane is a superb driver he was given the nickname flyby king earlier in his career because of how good he is using a pump fake and getting defenders to overplay which often enables him to accelerate towards the basket with his primary defender out of position in 2024-25 he had the eighth most drives following closeouts he’s a good finisher on drives also making 53.6% of them last year perhaps most underrated about his game is his cutting he shot 78% on cuts last season which was the 16th best mark among the 104 players who attempted at least 50 of them this is such an important offensive category we see each year that many of the best teams shoot high percentages on cuts for example in the regular season this year the Pacers ranked second in non-transition cut percentage and the Knicks were fourth the Magic ranked 12th bronze had the sixth best percentage the Grizzlies the last couple years used Bane as like a de facto point guard particularly when Ja Morant was out last year Bane brought the ball up the floor an average of 22.9 times per game when Morant was off the court it was 15 times per game this is going to give Orlando another ball handler who can initiate and orchestrate the offense to take pressure off Paulo Fron and Jaylen Suggs with that said Bane is a very cerebral player who makes excellent reads he averaged 5.3 assists last season he’s particularly good finding shooters with spray out passes from the paint of course in today’s NBA this is the best way to generate quality looks from beyond the ark best of all is that Bane is also a very good defender with his strong frame also interesting is that opponents shot 37.9% when Bane heavily contested the shot throughout the regular season among the 210 players who heavily contested at least 300 shots that mark ranked 21st in 69 regular season games this past year Bane averaged 19.2 points on 48.4% overall shooting 39.2% three-point shooting and 89.4% free throw shooting he was the only player in the league to reach all three of those marks amongst qualified players

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