Paolo Banchero agrees to 5-year rookie max extension with Magic

Paolo Banchero agrees to 5-year rookie max extension with Magic

And looking at the most uh points per game in a playoff series, you see Vancero there number one with 29.4. He’s preceded by Tracy McGrady, Penny Hardaway. I mean, some big big names and legends uh with this Magic franchise. And with that, we welcome in our NBA analyst, John Gonzalez. Uh John, good to see you. I thought you got rid of us, uh but here we are again. And I don’t know if you’re still going to mark yourself safe with free agency, but given the news that we just got, I have to ask you, is Ban Carro the first true franchise centerpiece in the Magic or that the Magic have had since White Howard? Yeah, Katie, it’s been mere minutes since we talked about the NBA. Let’s do it again. Uh, yes, absolutely. Now, that’s a short list, right? I mean, like the Orlando Magic for the last however many years it’s been since Dwight Howard moved on have not exactly covered themselves in glory. But with this young group with Palo Ben Carro and Fron Vagner and Jaylen Suggs who now they have locked up moving forward. This is sort of hope for the Orlando Magic for the first time in a long time. Palo Ben Caro is really talented. Katie, he’s only 22 years old. He was the rookie of the year. He’s already been named to an all-star. You already mentioned despite the fact that he had those injuries last year. He’s coming off of the best season statistically counting stats wise of his career. And he’s so young. So now we’ll see now that he’s gotten this big payday what he and the Orlando Magic can do. They bring in uh Desmond Bane how much they can uh take a step forward in the Eastern Conference because the Eastern Conference Katie outside of the Cavs and the Knicks pretty wide open. So with Paliban Caro, hopefully he’s going to have a healthy season. See whether or not he and the Magic can level up and really contend in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, well that was going to be my next question. So the Magic now have their core of Ben Carro, Fran Wagner and Jaylen Suggs under contract for the next 5 years as well as newly acquired Desmond Bane under contract through the 2028 29 season. So how would you like to see Orlando continue to build around Bad Carro and this core that they have? Yeah. So on the one hand they are really good defensive team, right? They were outrageous defensively last year. They had the second best defensive rating in the NBA, second behind only Oklahoma City that had an historic all-time defense. So, that’s a really good starting place, right? If you’re Jamal Mosley, the head coach, you’re feeling pretty good about that. But the Magic have been, let’s call them, I’ll be uh nice here, offensively challenged, Katie, for going on a decade. They’re constantly at the bottom of every offensive metric up to and including and especially shooting statistics. So, every team in the NBA, but especially the Orlando Magic, could use more shooting. Now, you mentioned they brought in Desmond Bane. That’s a really good place to start. He’s a fantastic three-point shooter. They also signed Taius Jones as a backup point guard. That should definitely help with Jaylen Suggs. Uh, but they should they should absolutely be looking at getting more uh offensive production, more shooting around Paulo Ben Carroll, but just defensively, I mean, that’s a really good starting point. They lost to the Boston Celtics in five games in the first round, but they gave the Celtics everything they could handle defense. They really made Boston work offensively in that first round where Boston, everybody knows the theory of the case for them, they like to take the most threes and make the most threes in the NBA. Well, the Orlando Magic put them to the test and really slowed them down there. So, defensively, that’s always a starting point for them where they’re going to be in the mix. And then offensively, now that you’ve got your core locked up, hopefully Ban Carol and Fran Vagner and Jaylen Suggs who were all injured at different points during the season last year, if they’re healthy along with Desmond Bane, they should be off and running and they should be right in the mix in the Eastern Conference. All right, you already mentioned if he can stay healthy. So despite an oblique injury that sidelined him for 34 games over the first couple months, Benerro went on to have a career year this past season, setting new highs with 25.9 points per game, seven and a half rebounds per game, also averaging just about five assists per game. So do you think that he’s worth this nearly $300 million that he’s going to be paid through 2030? I mean, well, the you’re worth what the market will bear, right? So the market is bearing this $300 million. Now, that however is a spicy price tag. So right now you’re you’re if you’re the Orlando Magic, you were already barreling towards this conclusion, right? It’s hard to get players of this caliber and when you do, you want to lock them up on long-term contracts. So Paliban Carol was going to get this payday. But if you are the magic, you want to see him level up now because as I mentioned, 22 years old, still really young, already made an all-star team, was the rookie of the year, but that’s not just the end point for him. That’s the starting point. You want to see him take another step forward the same way that Jason Tatum did with the Boston Celtics making multiple AllNBA teams, winning a championship, the way that SGA just did when he leveled up the Oklahoma City Thunder. They just won their first championship. Or even just shy of that, right? If you’re the Minnesota Timberwolves, a guy like Ant Edwards who took them to two straight Western Conference finals and they’re going to be in the mix moving forward. The Orlando Magic have not been good for a long time. They’ve got an opportunity this season Katie with Paliban Cara healthy Fron Vagner Jaylen Suggs in a year where the Boston Celtics are going to take a step back. You’ve really looking at the Cavs and the Knicks for sure. But be beyond that, it’s the Magic right there with an Ascended Pistons team, a Hawks team that’s been overhauled. If you’re the Magic, you have an opportunity here. But you want to see Paulo Beno take that next step. AllNBA within his sights. Not easy to be a top 15 player in the league, but that’s where he should be setting his sights. and also raising the Orlando Magic into true contenders in the Eastern Conference. All right, John, appreciate you hopping on with us last minute here for this breaking news, but don’t go too far because as you know, free agency never sleeps. We appreciate you.

John Gonzalez joins CBS Sports HQ to talk about the Orlando Magic extending Paolo Banchero’s contract.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSSports

WATCH
CBS Sports HQ: https://www.cbssports.com/live/
Paramount Plus: https://www.paramountplus.com

FOLLOW US ON:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/CBSSports/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cbssports/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/CBSSports

#nba #nbanews #orlandomagic