{"id":375833,"date":"2025-12-29T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375833\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:29:11","slug":"%e2%ad%90%ef%b8%8f-the-paolo-banchero-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375833\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2b50\ufe0f The Paolo Banchero problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo by Soobum Im\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Orlando Magic\u2019s lone All-Star, Paolo Banchero, is having his worst season of his career. What does it say about the Magic\u2019s title chances? <\/p>\n

Welcome to another edition of Tom\u2019s Title Tiers! A reminder: This is my subjective list based largely on objective data. This is not a pure, analytical ranking. You\u2019re here because you want to know what I think, to get inside my brain a little bit. Consider this a weekly report of what I see on film; what I glean from the numbers; what I hear on the phone; what I read in the news; what I feel.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s featured squad: the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n

A reminder that teams are listed within each tier in alphabetical order, not in order of strength. Here\u2019s a quick rundown of each tier:<\/p>\n

\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f This is a complete team, no notes.\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f Just missing that one thing.\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f One move away from being one move away.\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f So much has to break right.\u2b50\ufe0f Sooo you\u2019re saying there\u2019s a chance.<\/p>\n

Does OKC\u2019s skid against the San Antonio Spurs require a downgrade? What about the Spurs? Have I lost patience with the Cavs?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n

Statistical data updated through midnight Sunday.<\/p>\n

This is a complete team, no notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s rating: \u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50<\/p>\n

Record: 27-5 | 118.2 aORtg (6th), 106.8 aDRtg (1st), +11.4 aNet (1st)<\/p>\n

Check out last month\u2019s post about OKC\u2019s clutch supremacy!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just missing that one thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo by Soobum Im\/Getty Images) The Orlando Magic\u2019s lone All-Star, Paolo Banchero, is having his worst season of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-375833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}