When the Orlando Magic lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-92 Wednesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, it marked just the fifth game of Paolo Banchero’s NBA career. In other words, too early to make grand conclusions about what his season-long impact will be.
But one thing that’s been clear since Banchero’s arrival — throughout summer league, preseason and regular season — is that the Magic are going to get to the free-throw line more because he’s on the team.
Ahead of Wednesday, the Magic were attempting 24.8 free throws per game and had a free-throw rate (the number of made free throws per 100 field goal attempts) of 22%, both of which were top-10 marks. They finished in the bottom five in both categories last season — 19.7 free throws per game for No. 29 and a free throw rate of 17.5.% for No. 27th.
