Two Stand out Players so far this season

 Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler.

Today we will be discussing a couple of players that have caught my attention thus far, as well as look over some notes from this weekend. 

Grouped with two drafts containing generational prospects Zion Williamson and Victor Wembanyama, the 2022 draft didn’t have the flashy headlines that 2020 and ‘23 had, but Paolo Banchero the 2022 first overall pick has been the best of the three so far this season, and it should be no surprise that we’re talking about Paolo today. 

During my fantasy draft this year, I had Paolo at the top of my list for the third round and just before my pick, one of my friends (who will remain unnamed) snatched Paolo up from me, leaving me with Scottie Barnes who has had a lackluster  start to the season. Barnes flirted with a triple double last night with 5 steals to go alongside his 21-12 and 9, but headed to the locker room after taking a Jokic Elbow to the face late in the 4th, the Nuggets would end up winning in overtime. 

Let’s take it back to Paolo and move away from my cope with my fantasy blunder. Banchero is averaging 28 points, just over 9 rebounds, 6 assists, right around 2 stocks. Banchero is shooting 48% from the field up 3% from last year and 39% from three up 5% from last year. While the overall increases across the stat sheet is great to see and an efficiency increase, which has always been a gripe with Poalo’s game, is promising, but I feel will continue to rise, the thing that excites me the most revolves around turnovers. Paolo has almost cut his turnovers in half and has slightly increased his assist totals. 

Big wings have dominated the league for a long time, Carmelo Anthony for example falls short of Banchero on all fronts when comparing their 3rd seasons. Anthony struggled with turnovers throughout his  career and never went under 2 a game throughout his prime. Panchero and Anthony are both big strong scoring wings that need the ball in their hands a lot, but I believe Banchero will be undisputedly considered better, and have a more successful career than Anthony. Banchero is seemingly figuring out his efficiency and turnover issues, making him a greater net positive on offense, while still providing on the offensive end in other ways besides scoring. Banchero is an extremely capable rebounder, and I feel he will sit around 8-10 his entire career. While Paolo has made quite the scoring outburst so far this season, as the season goes on and his points even out I believe his assist numbers will continue to rise. Defensively Paolo isn’t some all defensive guy, but as he learns to use his size and strength to his advantage I believe he will be a career plus defender, and could even make some all defensive teams throughout his career, especially considering the defensive culture in Orlando. The one thing that truly sets Paolo apart from Melo is that I believe Paolo could win in Orlando, Melo was never in a true winning position throughout his prime. 

Moving to a man receiving much less buzz, not only this season, but his entire career, Ivica Zubac. I love Zubac, and while his 2024-25 stats are a little inflated at the moment, I still think this will be by far the best season of his career. With Kawhi out to start the season the clippers offense has been put in James Harden’s hands, and Harden keeps putting the ball in Zubac and Zubac keeps putting it down. Harden is currently averaging a career best 11.7 assists, as he is the primary ball handler on his team for the first time since 2020, this is thanks to Zubac. Zu is averaging right around 22 points on near 60% shooting. This percentage though is low for Zubac comparing it to the rest of his time as a clipper. Last year was Zu’s second best percentage season at around 65%, but this year he is taking more than double the amount of shots. As things even out for the clippers as Kawhi comes back, Zubac’s shots will drop and I assure his percentages will rise, I have a feeling he will be back to mid 60s percentage wise. Zubac is truly a pro's pro and you couldn’t ask any more of the man. He is a true center, he doesn’t complain about shots, he hits his screens and rolls hard, he finishes at the rim, fights for every rebound (you know he’ll be good for a few 20 bombs this season), and he works defensively. 

Centers like Zubac don't come around too often nowadays and it’s refreshing to see a center be successful who plays like a true center. Zubac has been able to put harden in a dream situation as he slowly falls from his prime. The 2 man game between those two guys is beautiful to watch, and I love watching Harden run a team once again. Zu has been doing this for years now and I’m happy that his 22 and 14 start to this season is bringing some attention to him. Zubac is a top 15 center in the league and the unsung hero of the Clippers 2-1 start and is a star in his role like no other. 

Carlos’ Notes from a few nights

• tip off was at 5:14. The NBA should either try to start most games on time or be more like college football and have more specific game start times. Not just rounding the nearest hour. 
• As a long time Heat fan it is amazing to see how far Derrick Jones JR. has come 
• Jokic has never been a great three point shooter, but one of his first two MVP seasons (back-to-back) was his second best 3pt shooting season percentage wise and the other was the year he shot it the most. The gap year between his second MVP and third he shot the least amount of threes in his career since his sophomore season
• After writing about Jokic's three pointers in the first quarter, he ended up making a career high 3s with 7. Most people believe this is a Luka or Shai MVP season, voter fatigue aside, could this be another Jokic year?
• This Clippers team would be perfect centered around a prime James Harden
• I loved the utilization of smaller Clippers lineups when Jokic was off the floor. Combinations of players such as: Harden, Kris Dunn, KPJ, Norm Powell, Nic Batum, Amir Coffey
• 20 years from now the Jokic-Gordon duo will be highly unappreciated. Same  with guys like Norman Powell who yes is a straight bucket, but who also is a highly intelligent player who operates well in the clutch, isn’t afraid to shoot, is an underrated 6th man of our time, and is shooting near 50-40-90 so far this season
• Clippers continue to get sets with a man wide open in the left corner, Amir Coffey was a frequent shooter at the end of this set
• When a player is making their way down the lane as a defender we want to keep them on our back hip, but as soon as we over rotate that back hip and bring the back shoulder in front of the man making his way to the hoop skilled players like James Harden will be able to create contact and draw a foul or switch sides and get a good look. 
• The bulls roster confuses me- what are they going to do with lavine and vucevic?
• How can an MVP candidate such as Shai differentiate themselves in such a tight race with so many talented guys.Defense. Doing the things on that end of the floor that we know a lot of other candidates won’t and we know he is capable of based on his steals numbers, but also the beginning of his career
• reviews take a long time- I did like how in the Pacers 76ers game they gave us shots during reviews and challenges of the replay center and reviewers looking over the play
• Would Maxey’s shot have gone if Turner didn’t goaltend- we obviously can’t hold that against him, shot blockers try to block shots. 
• A weird amount of clutch free throws have been missed this year
• no way Embiid was waving a towel 💀
• Ben Simmons was so good, how did he turn a 3 on 1 into a turnover 
• I think playing Jenga while eating wings is an awful idea. Sounds very messy

Thank you