Markelle Fultz Needs to Figure It Out…FAST
We are quickly approaching the glorious one year anniversary of the night The Picks Swapped. Sam Hinkie fleecing the Kings only for it to pay off like that was the most ballsy, ingenious move since Peter LeFleur took the money that White Goodman gave him and bet it all on Average Joe’s, only to win the bet and buy Globo Gym in the movie, ‘Dodgeball’. I remember the pure elation of realizing the picks swapping had actually happened while also battling the unsettling reality creeping into the back of my head that the third overall pick would never be enough to snag Markelle Fultz. Then, less than a week before the draft, Markelle Fultz was eating Chick-Fil-A en route to the Sixers practice facility. Back to back #1 picks in the draft and the final piece to the Process puzzle.
I was of the belief (and still am) that Fultz and Ben Simmons could co-exist in an offense, despite both being point guards, due to their varying skill sets. Watching Fultz play in Summer League games did nothing but bolster that belief. He was everything that the 76ers were missing:
https://twitter.com/DidTheSixersWin/status/882802233120882690
What happened next was nothing short of an absolute nightmare. His shoulder was hurt; it wasn’t hurt. He needed fluid drained from his shoulder; he needed fluid injected into his shoulder. He couldn’t shoot at all; he was shooting in some gym in New Jersey the whole time. It was an injury dilemma so peculiar that a superstar who is a top five player in this league and NBA Finals MVP got cleared from his injury but refused to play for his team…and it got completely overlooked. The Sixers accelerated progress masked the underlying issue that Fultz, a prized possession, was for lack of a better term, in ‘the Twilight Zone’. And then just like that, he was back.
It came out of no where but our shock was turned to glee when Fultz returned showing the ability to take command on an NBA floor. All was well again, until it wasn’t.
During the first playoff series against the Heat, Fultz looked utterly lost. To an extent, I really don’t even blame him. For some parts of the series, he was matched up against D Wade. When Wade won NBA Finals MVP in 2006, Fultz was 7. I would probably be a deer in headlights given the circumstances too. The Miami Heat came to play bully ball and Markelle just wasn’t ready for it. Which leads us to our next series, against the Celtics.
With Kyrie and Gordon Hayward out, many believed the Sixers were heavy favorites in this series. Except, Boston was able to “plug & play” seemingly to the point that Kyrie and Hayward weren’t missed at all. Terry Rozier brought the swagger and Jayson Tatum brought the lethal scoring ability Fultz was supposed to have. Tatum brought it in all five games in the series and there is little to no argument he was the most effective scorer on the floor aside from Embiid. Watching Jayson Tatum score effortlessly on JJ Redick in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semis was like death by a million cuts. His daggers again and again in Game 3, scoring every time Boston needed a bucket down the stretch, were like death by a million gun shot wounds. Jayson Tatum, the #3 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, finished shooting 46% from the field and 81% from the free throw line. He scored 20+ points in every game of the series. He was the most impressive player on a floor that Markelle Fultz never once touched.
When you or your team loses, you get angry and fingers begin to get pointed. My fingers right now are being unfairly pointed at Markelle Fultz. Hopefully, we are spiraling towards a similar Earl Thomas/Brandon Graham conundrum and I will look back and be wrong in five years. But, they always tell you in school and in life that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Markelle Fultz’ first impression will always be that of Jayson Tatum tearing the Sixers apart in a playoff series while Fultz sits on the bench in a hoodie, looking like a 12 year old. Here’s hoping he spends the next decade making me regret I ever wrote this.