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Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero isn’t just one of the most impressive rookies of the 2022-23 season.
His basketball IQ, play style, versatile skillset, and an NBA-ready body have allowed him to be one of the most impressive rookies of all-time, with the 20-year-old often seeing his name in rare company due to his production.
A player whom many believe is the frontrunner for the 2023 Rookie of the Year award, Banchero tells Dime Magazine’s Bill Difilippo that the on-court key to his success has been “being able to attack the basket, draw contact, and create [his] own shot.”
Banchero is averaging 7.6 free-throw attempts per game and drawing fouls at a 48.7 percent rate, which is quite impressive for anybody, let alone a player two years removed from high school. As one might expect, both numbers are tops among the 2022 draft class.
Numbers aside, Banchero has a solid handle of the ball but an even better feel of the game. At 6-foot-10, 250 pounds, he easily gets to his spots to tack points onto the board.
It “hasn’t been easy though,” Banchero says. “It’s been a lot of learning, but I think I’ve done a good job. And it encourages me because the games that you do struggle, it’s rough, it only makes you want to be better.”
To that point, Banchero believes his mentality has been the main secret to his success:
“I think more my mentality really than anything to do with my game. I think my mentality on the court, just how I go about each and every game, whether it’s a good or bad game, I think staying level headed, not getting too high, not getting too low, it’s helped me a lot. And I just want to keep improving on it, improve on every other facet of my game.”