Leave Markelle Fultz Alone
The biggest storyline is this season so far is the influx of excellent young players. But one person who is noticeably absent from the list is the top overall pick from the 2017 NBA Draft, Markelle Fultz.
Fultz suffered a mysterious shoulder injury in August that forced him to use a free throw form reminiscent of that of Shaquille O’Neal, while also seemingly disabling him from taking any normal jump shots at all. He played four awful games, and it was very clear that he was not himself. However, it took Fultz’s agent going on the record about his client being hurt for the Philadelphia 76ers to address the injury and take him off the court.
Many are jumping to the conclusion that Fultz is going to be a bust, which is an incredible reach to make based such a short time, regardless of the circumstances. But for those who are doing premature redrafts, and those who want to immediately crown Danny Ainge the victor of last June’s trade over Bryan Colangelo, take this into account: we haven’t truly seen Markelle Fultz play yet. He may have stepped onto the court a few times, but he’s clearly not the same Markelle Fultz that averaged more than 20 points per game as a Freshman at Washington. His performance in games where he was physically unable to lift his right arm is irrelevant.
And to those who blame Fultz for this whole debacle, remember this: all he did was simply have shoulder soreness. The Sixers are the ones who tried to sweep the injury under the rug, then undersold the severity, forced him to play through it when he was obviously not up to the task (which surely aggravated the injury), and then blamed him for the injury, suggesting that the injury was caused by his altered shooting motion, a claim that Fultz’s camp emphatically denies.
The moral of the story is: just leave the kid alone. He’s 19, and has played just 4 games - 4 games in which he was nowhere near healthy. Pump the brakes with all of the hot takes, Markelle Fultz is going to be just fine.
