{"id":705689,"date":"2026-04-08T18:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705689\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:21:29","slug":"paolo-bancheros-magic-teammate-compares-him-to-lebron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705689\/","title":{"rendered":"Paolo Banchero’s Magic teammate compares him to LeBron"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic<\/a> are hoping to break through the glass ceiling this season. The Magic are led by their young stars in 23-year-old Paolo Banchero<\/a> and 24-year-old Franz Wagner<\/a>. Banchero is one of the top young stars in the NBA, winning Rookie of the Year<\/a> along with posting an All-Star bid during the 2023-24 season. He leads the Magic with 22.3 points per game.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the German-born Wagner is a rising star himself with the 6-foot-10 big man averaging 24.2 points per game last season. Despite being limited by injuries this year, Wagner has averaged 20.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Orlando is currently ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference entering Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With three games left in the season, they have a chance to climb out of the play-in spot, being just a game behind the sixth-seeded Toronto Raptors. The franchise is looking to win their first playoff series<\/a> since Dwight Howard was there during the 2009-10 season.<\/p>\n

Wendell Carter Jr<\/a>. has been around both players since the beginning of their careers. The veteran center is a key cog for the Magic and is averaging 12.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

Carter came up with an interesting comparison for both his teammates, comparing Banchero to LeBron James<\/a> \u2014 they’re similar in stature \u2014 and Wagner to the fellow German-born Dirk Nowitzki<\/a> and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaolo’s definitely one of a kind,\u201d said Carter of Banchero. \u201c6-foot-10 frame, 240, I think 250 pounds, can play one through five. If I had to compare him to someone, I think it has to be LeBron. I think that’s the only same size, yeah. I think that’s the only person I could compare him to.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Franz, a mixture of Dirk’s footwork with Paul Pierce’s scoring ability,\u201d Carter continued to say. \u201cFranz is unique too. I can’t really put my finger on who he is or who he plays like. He’s one of the highest IQ players I’ve ever played with. I don’t know that’s a good one, but I don’t know. I have to think about that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

While James is obviously on another level when it comes to his resume as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Banchero’s frame combined with his all-around ability \u2014 he is also averaging 8.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game \u2014 is what makes him somewhat similar in play style to James. When you combine his 6-foot-10 frame and his penchant to play the forward position, the comparison makes sense.<\/p>\n

Carter isn’t the only one to compare Banchero to James, as former Magic star Tracy McGrady also did so during a recent interview<\/a> with us. The former two-time scoring champion said Banchero should be putting up a LeBron-like stat line every night.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould be on LeBron status in terms of what that stat line should be looking like every single night,\u201d said McGrady of Banchero.<\/p>\n

He did hesitate when it came to an exact player comparison for Banchero, instead complimenting the Magic star by saying he’s one of a kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, he really doesn’t remind me of anyone,\u201d said McGrady. \u201cHe’s 6-foot-10, bro. He’s a big dude. When I talk to him is when I’m down there, if I go see the game or something, and I’m around those guys, I have a conversation with him. But other than that, I don’t have any type of connection with him. But he’s a big dude. Man, he’s a big guy. Man, 6-10, talk about heavy and just mass. If he wanted to, he should be averaging 30 points in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Orlando Magic are hoping to break through the glass ceiling this season. The Magic are led by their young stars in 23-year-old Paolo Banchero and 24-year-old Franz Wagner. Banchero is one of the top young stars in the NBA, winning Rookie of the Year along with posting an All-Star bid during the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic are hoping to break through the glass ceiling this season. The Magic are led by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,1105,1997,403,185,48,6,47,76,3883,402,2078,8079,454],"class_list":{"0":"post-705689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dirk-nowitzki","10":"tag-exclusive","11":"tag-franz-wagner","12":"tag-lebron-james","13":"tag-magic","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-magic","17":"tag-orlandomagic","18":"tag-paolo-banchero","19":"tag-paul-pierce","20":"tag-tracy-mcgrady","21":"tag-wendell-carter-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116370479146069146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}