Paolo Banchero: Playbook for the Pros

Can an NBA team utilize Paolo similar to the way the Clippers deployed Blake Griffin before he could shoot?

We often talk about draft prospects in terms of their skills and the evaluation we see before us. Can they use both hands? How do they shoot it? Are they athletic enough to blow by someone one-on-one? More nuanced discussion can follow, including what position they’ll play in the NBA and how their usage might change.

Typically, draft analyst conversation stops there. We don’t talk enough about how to create an environment to best use each player’s skills in the NBA. At the top of the draft, with elite prospects, a franchise drafts them with the intention of building around them as a pillar for the future. But what does that look like?

For Paolo Banchero of Duke, there is no 2022 prospect we have greater certainty in projecting as a top offensive option in the NBA. That said, he still has areas to improve. His jump shot range to 3 is unsteady, he prefers slow-down isolations, jab step situations and back-to-the-basket mismatch opportunities.

Early in his career, Blake Griffin had similar tendencies once he exploded as the top offensive option for the Los Angeles Clippers. Over his first seven seasons, with the Los Angeles Clippers, Griffin was a sub-30% three-point shooter. Yet he averaged over 21 points per game and over four dimes as a creator, eventually leading the league in elbow touches per game once he got to the Detroit Pistons.

Blake is a much different athlete than Paolo, and Banchero is already miles ahead in terms of projection of the jumper and comfort in the mid-range. But if both want to play a slower, more isolation-driven game, the way the Clippers utilized Griffin strikes me as the right way to give Banchero plenty of touches in advantageous positions.

The key for Griffin’s success — at least in terms of wins and losses — was playing with another All-Star in Chris Paul, someone who could organize the show and help create mismatches for him. Banchero doesn’t have a similar player at Duke, and playing with a lead guard who can create and manipulate easy switches that Paolo can take advantage of is paramount.

At this point in the year, Banchero is averaging 17.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 54.2% from two-point range and scoring on a crisp 43.8% of his isolation possessions. He’s a great finisher, efficient near the rim and has made some solid passing reads. Putting the ball in his hands around the elbows, despite that seeming like a lost art for non-5s in today’s NBA, might be the best way to ease his transition into the league.