pepe1991 wrote:Knightro wrote:Paolo's long-term ceiling as a franchise player is a fascinating debate topic.
A lot of people are decidedly low on what he can become, but I also think a good bit of that chatter comes from people who box score watch more than actually watch.
Paolo doesn't grade all that favorably right now in a lot of advanced metrics like NET, EPM, etc. So people who don't watch a lot of Magic games see that and think he's making a minimal impact.
But then he was voted into the all-star game by NBA coaches. And NBA players also shower him with praise.
So it's a very interesting thing to look at broadly.
Among nba fans who aren't fans of XY team with xy players on it, being 30% usage rate player on 55% TS/ 5% below league's average eFG will always be viewed in similar fashion.
It just boils down to personal opinion how much you view team sucess as direct result of such player being highest usage rate player on a team.
His splits on W’s and L’s tell his story. They’re consistent win or lose in ppg, rpg, apg but in the W’s he’s 59% TS% and 28% USG, shooting 42% from 3.
He’s doing that at a 43:30 ratio this season. Expanding on that will get him respect.
From a game perspective, he’s shown a knack for pulling through in the big moments a lot already for a young guy. I understand why he wouldn’t grab someone, but I wouldn’t bet against him. I think he’s a large part of the “grind you down and beat you” identity the team has at the moment, with his bully ball offense matched with the team’s grindhouse defense.
