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Player Paolo Banchero

Wow, what a pleasant surprise. I was very pessimistic regarding the 2021 recruiting class. With that said, in the past on this forum, I've been very wordy on my praise of Banchero. I've stated on this forum multiple times I believe he's the best player in the class, and a perfect fit at Duke.

Every time we get down on Duke basketball, it comes roaring right back. This commitment is equivalent to an earthquake in its impact.
 
This has arguably been the most apathetic I’ve felt regarding an upcoming Duke season since I became a fan (circa 2000). But there always seems to be one event that changes that, at least recently anyway (Zion commit, historically down year last year, Banchero commit, etc.). I just can’t quite seem to quit Duke basketball when I know the time spent towards any other endeavor would be much more worth my time. Ks retirement will probably be the final nail though.
 
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Slap the Floor said:
Wow, what a pleasant surprise. I was very pessimistic regarding the 2021 recruiting class. With that said, in the past on this forum, I've been very wordy on my praise of Banchero. I've stated on this forum multiple times I believe he's the best player in the class, and a perfect fit at Duke.

Every time we get down on Duke basketball, it comes roaring right back. This commitment is equivalent to an earthquake in its impact.
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Weird I hadn’t noticed any wordy posts. Will keep an eye out
 
Slap the Floor said:
Wow, what a pleasant surprise. I was very pessimistic regarding the 2021 recruiting class. With that said, in the past on this forum, I've been very wordy on my praise of Banchero. I've stated on this forum multiple times I believe he's the best player in the class, and a perfect fit at Duke.

Every time we get down on Duke basketball, it comes roaring right back. This commitment is equivalent to an earthquake in its impact.
Click to expand...
When Duke makes moves, the college basketball world shakes.
 
52% FG sticks out. Either he doesn't play like a center at all or he's really bad at making baskets around the rim against high school-sized competition. Based on the consensus that he's an elite prospect, I doubt it's the latter, so I don't think he plays like a center. Probably a bunch of midrange stuff.

That's a really good thing if your coaching staff can be trusted to play him at center regardless of how he plays. Then you simply have no one on the court playing like an outdated, traditional, back-to-the-basket waste of space and possessions. Having one player on the court who is competent in the midrange is much more valuable than that, especially setting up in the middle of all the zones you see in college.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing for Duke. Playing Banchero and Williams together or Banchero and Coleman together is probably going to be extremely bad relative to the other lineups K will have to work with, and I would expect to see a decent amount of big ball just because it's available.
 
SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:
52% FT sticks out. Either he doesn't play like a center at all or he's really bad at making baskets around the rim against high school-sized competition. Based on the consensus that he's an elite prospect, I doubt it's the latter, so I don't think he plays like a center. Probably a bunch of midrange stuff.

That's a really good thing if your coaching staff can be trusted to play him at center regardless of how he plays. Then you simply have no one on the court playing like an outdated, traditional, back-to-the-basket waste of space and possessions. Having one player on the court who is competent in the midrange is much more valuable than that, especially setting up in the middle of all the zones you see in college.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing for Duke.
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You are correct- many of his highlights are him driving/shooting from the midrange. He also takes a fair amount of 3s. The scouts I trust says his touch on shooting is outstanding, especially for a big.

I too hope he plays the majority of the time at the 5.

What I envision is maybe 16 or so min at the 4 and 16 at the 5. Sharing time with Williams and Coleman.

Not to go full CMON but . . .

Starters are likely Roach, Griffin, Baldwin, Banchero, Williams

1- Roach (40)
2- Keels (25)/Griffin (15)
3- Griffin (16)/Baldwin (16)
4- Banchero (16)/Baldwin (16)/Coleman (8)
5- Williams (16)/Banchero (16)/Coleman (8)

I don't see how Keels fits unless Steward is OAD.

Roach- 40
Paolo- 32
Baldwin- 32
Griffin- 31
Keels- 25
Coleman- 16
Williams- 16

Baker gets mashed in there somewhere.
 
Roach-Steward or Keels-Griffin-Baldwin-Banchero is a lineup of death and I am begging for it.
 
Maybe Steward splits time at the 1 with Roach and we get Keels too.

Would take a masterful job of convincing everyone of their role. That's a lot of chiefs.
 
So, basically, to be the very clear favorite in 2021 we need to rely on a father to put his son's welfare ahead of his own.
 
Has anyone (who can see my posts) found any recent 3PT numbers and/or actually watched him play?

The summary on him sounds like a pretty ideal college 5 who can only help, but not necessarily a top-3 recruit. Seems more like the profile of a top 10-12 range guy than a Zion or Tatum who's capable of carrying a contender.

Also, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get used to his named being pronounced PAUL-oh ban-CARE-oh.
 
On the other hand, this is some legit highlight porn:



His outside shot looks fine, and his handle looks more natural from the perimeter than I would have expected. Looks more like a big wing than a post player trying to expand his game, and a lot less EJ Montgomeryish than his scouting report implies. Seems like a safe bet to be a good 2-way NBA player long-term, and just like every recruit ever, his ceiling at Duke will come down to whether he's a good enough 3PT shooter to hunt his shot vs. just having to shoot it when wide open to keep defenses honest.

Lastly, one of his top highlight videos is titled "Paolo Banchero's got the BEST HAIR?!". I feel like Youtube highlight channel guys are nearing the end of a decade-long coke binge and just barely hanging on by a thread at this point.
 
Has Axes posted anything substantial on this yet? We need someone to write an AxesBot script that reposts only his recruiting posts for the 3/4 of the board that has him on 2-way ignore.
 
80% free throws make me quite excited - can't remember the last time we had a reliable big free throw shooter. Or our 1 and 2 options both having reliable free throw shooting percentages
 
StopThePumpFakesShav said:
Wow. Yeah was this even expected? Can someone rate the threat of him ending up in the G-League?
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Putting the issue of dropping the bag aside, as part of the first class getting to make revenue off their own marketing, I just can't imagine that the G-league would come close to approaching the monetary value, both direct and indirect, that any recruit would get being a featured player at Duke for a season. Isn't G-league select topping out on 125K salaries? That's nothing. I'm sure Duke has already commissioned some type of market research from McKinsey or w/e on this topic to show recruits.

If the NBA were serious, that figure would be closer to a million.
 
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