Paolo Banchero hit a brutal Josh Smith comparison amid Orlando’s slow start

On Monday night, Orlando Magic fell to 1-3 in the 2025 NBA season with a disappointing road loss against the Philadelphia 76ers. The loss was another puzzlingly poor defensive performance Magic team who was supposed to be among the league’s elite in that department this year.

Not helping the cause was Paolo Bancherowho has had a rough start to the season and recently pulled off a stunningly poor effort late in a close game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Recently, NBA analyst Kirk Goldsbury stopped by Zach Lowe’s podcast from The Ringer and made a comparison former NBA forward.

“I’m going to raise a red flag over Paolo Banchero Island. This is such a pivotal moment for him, and I hesitate to admit it — but sometimes he reminds me of Josh Smith,” Goldsbury said, per MrBuckBuck on X, formerly Twitter. “He’s only made five of his 27 rebounds this year, and I’m not cherry-picking. I love Paolo — he’s a big part of the future of America’s basketball — but last season, among the top 62 active rebounders in the NBA, he was 60th in efficiency.”

“He has a problem with his jump shot, and as the team’s most active scorer, that’s a problem,” he concluded.

Josh Smith was similarly an extremely talented player for the Atlanta Hawks in the 2000s and early 2010s, but struggled to shoot the ball from the outside, to the point where fans in attendance would actively groan when he got ready to launch one.

Tough start for the Magic

Entering this year, the Magic were expected to compete for one of the top seeds in the East after trading Desmond Bain in the offseason. While four games is too small a sample size to make big statements, the Magic haven’t looked great so far, especially defensively, giving up 136 points to the 76ers on Monday.

Things will likely improve as this new-look roster continues to grow, so it’s too soon for any fans to hit the panic button. However, if this is the version of Buncher that Orlando gets this year, there will be a hard ceiling on how good they can be.