I am happy to be wrong with Banchero. He is not soneone you can build the team around. And he is NOT sengun fgs. Sengun makes half the salary. Salaries matter!
The gripe you cannot draft a 3 and D guy whose D is also not elite before a Numero Uno as Stone did, it was very risky .....
I am not saying I think that Smith is the perfect player. However, IMHO the biggest mistake a GM can make is overpaying for a score first players that is not elite (Like Banchero, Green, Tray Young etc) . You can destroy your salary cap and be stuck with that player for years staying in Limbo. With good role players you can more easily trade them. That being said I do not know who I would have drafted if we had the number 1 pick . I do not follow NCAA basketball, So I was only going off on scouting reports. So my opinion before a draft is useless. And I do agree that with such a high draft Pick you usually try to get the Franchise player. I just didn't see the fit with Banchero and Green and Sengun (Who I was really high on at the time) and from what I heard I did not believe Banchero would be a franchise level player. Overall, I am glad we did not end up with Banchero.
Jalen Johnson is a name that u prolly should have gotten, Jaydub is prolly too hidden for Stone.... Those are the players in retrospect.
Pretty much has turned into exactly the player I expected he would. A good individual offensive talent, but not good enough to be a true offensive carry. Doesn't really impact the game in any positive way if he doesn't have the ball. He'll eventually carve out a role as a supporting player.
Nobody had those guys in the top 3. Even Presti who got JayDub still drafted bust Ousmane Dieng over him.
Banchero? Its hard for guys like him to play supporting roles since as you said its hard for him to impact the game if he doesnt have the ball. The main issue with Banchero I think similar with Jalen he didnt spend time working on his game. Still functionally the same guy when he was a rookie.
Except Jabari was the obvious pick at #3 and every single team would have drafted him at 3. You can blame stone for Jalen Green pick, but Jabari was consensus obvious pick at the time.
100% this. People are employing a lot of revisionist history, but Jabari was a no-brainer at 3rd overall at the time. He was thought to be the fist pick in the draft until like 20 minutes before it happened.
I was never as high on Banchero as everyone else when he entered the league. I had concerns about his shooting and wondered what his position really was. Having said that -- I am not as down as Banchero as everyone else is. He has had some huge playoff games in the past, he is a match up nightmare if used properly and he has talent. The contract isn't good - but that also makes is cost in trade lower. There is certainly risk in getting Banchero, but I really don't think he has been used properly or coached well at all. He does have the upside of being a franchise player
"Biggest weakness: There are 52 players who appeared in at least 100 games with a usage rate of over 25 percent since the 2023-24 season. Banchero ranks 52nd out of those 52 players in effective field goal percentage heading into this season. The guy simply has to be more efficient!" Paolo has completed in his 4th regular season, and is rated 31st here. I think this is still too high for current ability. If it is banking on upside, Flagg should have been higher than him. There are plenty of players that become better shooters over time, but there are many more that don't. Paolo, much like Amen, will be nearly unstoppable if he gets a shot. Paolo, to me, has been very underwhelming outside the NCAA tournament and vs Cleveland in the playoffs a couple of years ago. Not a bad player, but just hard to build a championship around unless his game dramatically improves. Granted, if they change the lottery, having a guy like Paolo may not be so detrimental (not good enough to be the man on a Championship team, but good enough to get paid a lot and kill chances of getting good lottery picks).
ORL coaching (offensively) does need improvement. But part of the issue isn't just Jamhal's limited offense, it seems Paolo is not taking the coaching well. After getting his bag, he probably feels less need to comply. There's a hilarious clip from this week's play-in game of Paolo just refusing to take an open three twice on the same play. Ended up missing on the contested middy. Defenders just shrunk the floor, because he's too stubborn to get to his middy spot. That shot selection was a choice. If a player is going risk missing a shot at least miss a three. The payoff is 3pt instead of 2, longer rebound for your team, and if fouled three FT. If Paolo is only doing this to spite Jamhal and willingly change for the next coach, that pettiness is selfishness. It's not just an ability problem, it seems to be also an attitude problem.
