Paolo Banchero has become an easy target as the Orlando Magic’s 2026 season has unraveled, but the loudest criticism keeps skipping over the parts of his game that actually moved forward.
That’s the tension surrounding Orlando right now. The Magic came into the year expected to contend near the top of the Eastern Conference.
They made the Desmond Bane move to shore up an offense that had been lagging, and they acted like a team ready to go all in. Instead, the season spiraled, even after Orlando still grabbed a 3-1 lead over the Detroit Pistons in the first round.
The Magic then dropped three straight chances to close it out, capped by an ugly home loss in Game 6 that included the worst offensive half in NBA history.
When a season goes sideways like that, the star usually takes the hit. With Franz Wagner missing most of the year, Banchero absorbed a lot of the blame, and the noise around him only keeps growing as the Magic slide further out of the national spotlight.
Some of the critique has gone well past fair.
“A lot of times for a 23-year-old to change, he needs to see the errors in his way,” Brendan Haywood said on Finding the Seams. “I don't know if Paolo has gotten there yet.
Some guys get comfortable playing a certain way, and they don't like getting out of their comfort zone. Some guys are able to switch that.
I don't know which guy he is yet.
“His game has been the same since high school. It has been catch, hold, jab, then I get into a move, dribble, bounce. If you are going to be that ball-dominant, you can't average 22 points per game and shoot 30 percent from three.”
Haywood did leave room for the idea that a 23-year-old can still change, and that a new coach could push Banchero into a different comfort zone. His larger point, though, was blunt: if Banchero is going to keep playing this way, he has to be elite. Haywood wasn’t sure that kind of leap can happen in one offseason.
There’s truth in the criticism. Last season was not Banchero’s best, and the efficiency questions are real.
He averaged 22.2 points per game, basically in line with his All-Star 2024 season, while taking 16.0 field goal attempts per game with a 27.6 percent usage rate. He still hasn’t posted a positive net rating in any season of his career, though DataBallr had the Magic at a +0.2 net rating with Banchero on the floor after removing low-leverage minutes.
Even so, the conversation around him tends to flatten everything into one number or one bad stretch. That misses the growth.
Banchero still put up career highs in important areas last season. He averaged 8.4 rebounds per game, his best mark yet, and 5.2 assists per game, giving him a second straight season above 5.0 assists.
He was one of six players in the league to average at least 20.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. The only player on that list who wasn’t an All-Star was Jayson Tatum, and Tatum didn’t play until March.
The efficiency issue is where the criticism lands hardest. Banchero can still get better there, and everyone knows it. But he also posted a career-high 45.9 percent from the field even while shooting 30.5 percent from three, and his 56.6 percent true shooting percentage was the best of his career.
That number still placed him 10th worst among 45 players with a usage rate of at least 25 percent. But it also sat ahead of All-Stars like Cade Cunningham and Pascal Siakam, which is part of why the perception around Banchero doesn’t always match the full picture. The record, the plus/minus, and the way people process his style all feed the same narrative.
And yet the place where Banchero keeps showing up is when the stakes rise.
That’s the part even his critics have to respect. In last year’s playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, Banchero averaged 26.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game.
He was one of only three players in the postseason to put up 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game, alongside Nikola Jokic and Jayson Tatum. All three were bounced in the first round.
Banchero was even better in earlier playoff runs. He averaged 27.0 points per game in his playoff debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2024, then 29.4 points per game against the Boston Celtics in 2025.
That’s the version people see when they talk about what he could become full-time. It’s also why the frustration exists in the first place.
The level is there. The challenge is making it show up consistently enough for Orlando to matter at the highest level.
Banchero is under pressure, both individually and as the face of the Magic. That’s what will define him.
But the idea that he hasn’t changed at all doesn’t hold up. He has improved.
He has taken steps. They just haven’t always been obvious in the middle of a season that went off the rails.
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Jalen Suggs Suddenly Faces Real Pressure In Orlandos New Backcourt
The Magic went into this era with a clear idea of who the centerpieces were supposed to be, and the trade for Desmond Bane only sharpened that picture. Orlando has built around a young core of Jalen Suggs, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, betting that those three could grow together into something more dangerous once the roster added a more polished backcourt presence.
Suggs still matters to that plan, but the spotlight is getting brighter on him now for reasons beyond his usual defensive value. His offense sagged in the 2025-26 playoffs, and his availability has been a recurring issue over the past few seasons, leaving the Magic to weigh his long-term fit against the urgency of winning with a stronger supporting cast already in place. [Read more 🡒]
Franz Wagner Holds The Key To Orlandos Offensive Ceiling
Franz Wagner has become one of the clearest indicators of where Orlandos offense can go from here. When Paolo Banchero has been out, Wagner has shown he can slide into a lead role without the attack collapsing around him, which is exactly the kind of flexibility the Magic need if they want their ceiling to rise with the rest of the East.
The bigger question is not whether Wagner can fit next to Banchero, but how high that pairing can push the group if both stay on the floor and keep developing. Wagners own injury history, including a torn oblique and a high ankle sprain, has already made availability part of the conversation, and for Orlando that makes his growth more than a nice subplot. It may be one of the central variables in whether the offense takes the next step. [Read more 🡒]