Paolo Banchero: Draft | Dejounte Murray | Contract

Paolo Napoleon James Banchero is an American-Italian professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the NBA. Have a look.

Paolo Banchero: Draft | Dejounte Murray | Contract

Banchero played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Following his freshman season, Banchero declared for the 2022 NBA draft, where he was selected with the first overall pick by the Orlando Magic. In 2022, he was named the ACC Rookie of the Year.

Banchero reached a height of 3 feet (0.91 m) at 15 months of age. In his childhood, he played basketball and American football and took part in track.

He grew up playing basketball at Rotary Boys and Girls Club of Seattle, as well as EBC Camps most notably the Ballislife Jr. All-American Camp, drawing inspiration from his mother, who played professionally. In seventh grade, Banchero grew from 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) to 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m).

He was ranked among the top 50 eighth-graders nationally in both basketball and football.

Paolo Banchero Draft

Duke’s Paolo Banchero entered his freshman season with lofty expectations, seen to be in a dual with Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren for the No. 1 overall pick.

As the season went on, other players — most notably, Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr. — also entered the conversation, and now, it looks like all signs point to Smith hearing his name called first by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

But that’s not to say Banchero disappointed by any means in his lone college basketball season. The star freshman averaged 17.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game, helping lead Duke to the Final Four. 

What makes Banchero so special is his dual ability to threaten defenses as a shot creator and playmaker.

At 6-foot-10, 250 pounds, Banchero is a walking mismatch because he’s too quick and fluid for bigs, yet too strong and physical for guards.

He spends a lot of time out on the perimeter to hunt mismatches and he specifically did a great job of using all of his tools as a scorer and passer in Duke’s NCAA tournament game against Michigan State.

While many point to the first half of Duke’s early season matchup with Gonzaga as the quintessential Banchero highlight, the tournament game against the Spartans highlighted Banchero’s growth not yet evident in that earlier high profile matchup.

Dejounte murray 

Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray told Orlando Magic rookie Paolo Banchero on Sunday night that he ‘lost all respect’ for him because he changed ever since making it to the NBA.

Murray, 25, took to Instagram to tell Banchero that he’s no longer humble, claiming that the Magic rookie ‘tried to flex’ the fact the he was the No. 1 pick of the 2022 NBA Draft.

The whole fight started when Murray gave Banchero an early “welcome to the league” moment with a disrespectful dunk at the Zeke-End Pro-Am tournament at Tacoma Community College in Washington on Sunday.

After the dunk, Murray taunted Banchero by getting in his face, gesturing that he was “too small” and launching the ball at his chest.

He later went on IG to share the clip of him dunking over Banchero with the caption, “WELCOME TO THE BIG LEAGUES!!!!!! Disrespectful They Said….. Yeahhhhh I KNOW!!!!!!!! [Sic]”

Banchero, 19, shared Murray’s reel to his IG story and claimed that the Hawks guard unfollowed him.

Paolo Banchero Contract 

Paolo Banchero signed a 4 year / $50,158,769 contract with the Orlando Magic, including $50,158,769 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $12,539,692.

In 2022-23, Banchero will earn a base salary of $11,055,120, while carrying a cap hit of $11,055,120 and a dead cap value of $11,055,120.

Banchero was No. 3 in On3’s 2021 Consensus Top Basketball Recruits Rankings.