WATCH: Paolo Banchero posterizes Cory Joseph in his NBA debut
It didn’t take long for the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft to make a splash in his NBA debut with the Orlando Magic. On Wednesday night, Paolo Banchero sent in an absolutely ridiculous dunk, posterizing Detroit Pistons’ guard Cory Joseph in the fourth quarter of the Pistons-Magic game. Joseph was trying to draw a charge, and Banchero just flat out went right through him and sent it in with authority.
Check it out.
Paolo Banchero had a special performance in his first game
The Pistons bench went nuts after the dunk, as you might expect. There are surely plenty more highlights like that one to come in the young superstar’s career. Not only did he have an amazing highlight in his debut, but the former Duke star stuffed the stat sheet with 27 points, nine rebounds, and five assists. In doing so, he became just the third player over the last 30 years with 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists in his NBA debut, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The other two players were LeBron James and Grant Hill.
Detroit ended up winning the game, 113-109.
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The 6-foot-10, 250-pound, Seattle native played and started 39 games for the Duke Blue Devils as a freshman. He scored 17.2 points per game in 33 minutes with a 47.8% hit rate from the field. Posting 7.8 boards per game, Banchero was just a couple of rebounds shy of averaging a double-double, which he notched on 12 occasions.
He is a former five-star recruit who ranked No. 3 in the 2021 On3 Consensus Rankings and No. 1 among power forwards.
This offseason, Banchero spoke about dealing with the high expectations coming into his rookie year in the NBA as the former No. 1 overall pick.
“It’s nothing I feel like I’m not used to,” said Banchero. “It definitely is different, but I feel like I dealt with a lot of the same stuff throughout this year. I had a couple bad games, and everyone has their opinions and whatnot, but you can’t pay attention to that. You can’t give that any attention. People are going to say what they say. As long as me and my coach and teammates are on the same page, they’ve got their trust in me and I’ve got trust in them. We’re going to figure it out.
“I’m not ever really worried about what’s going on and what’s being said on the outside. I try to keep everything internal within the team and the coaches and look to them for help and advice.”
On3’s James Fletcher III also contributed to this article.