Paolo Banchero is blocking shots now

When coach Steve Kerr started trying out the idea of Paolo Banchero at center, it was met with both excitement and skepticism.

The excitement came from using Paolo Banchero much like another playmaking forward in Draymond Green. Banchero, listed at 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds (he is probably heavier now after an offseason of weight training), is a giant playmaking big with scoring chops. He became a foul machine simply because of how he was able to move and put defenses in compromising positions with his size and agility.

Steve Kerr reasoned after working as an assistant in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 that in international basketball, it would be valuable to have a center who could grab rebounds and push the ball immediately up the floor. That is what Bam Adebayo did so successfully in the gold-medal effort.

What everyone was concerned about was his defense.

Banchero is not Green on that…